Clara Barton founds the American Red Cross
On this day · 21 May 1881
A Civil War nurse who refused to retire turned years of lobbying into a disaster-relief institution that still answers the call.
On May 21, 1881, Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross in Washington, D.C., and was soon elected its first president. She was nearly 60, an age when many people slow down; instead she launched the work she is best remembered for.
Barton had earned the nickname “Angel of the Battlefield” during the Civil War, hauling supplies and nursing wounded soldiers under fire. While in Europe she encountered the International Red Cross and resolved to bring it home, then spent years writing pamphlets, lecturing, and pressing presidents to act.
Her persistence paid off twice over. The American Red Cross took shape in 1881, and by 1882 the United States ratified the Geneva Conventions, the treaties that still protect the wounded and civilians in wartime.
Barton led the organization for 23 years, stepping down in 1904. Today its name remains shorthand for showing up when disaster strikes.
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