|
|
||
Unique dwelling built for Civil War heroine Clara Barton is full of unique surprises; by Paul Sullivan Date published: 9/22/2007
THERE ARE many lessons to be learned Her name was Clara Barton, and she has long been known to schoolchildren across America as the founder of the American Red Cross. That much is true, but it is woefully insufficient. On our recent visit to Glen Echo Park in the Maryland suburbs, I walked over to Barton's home--hidden behind trees near the old amusement park. After all, I really knew nothing more about this American icon Her old home, now a national historic landmark, is interesting enough, with its huge interior (not all of it open to the public) and somewhat Spartan furnishings. But the building, which also served as the first headquarters of the American Red Cross and as a warehouse for disaster-relief supplies, only hints at the life and personality of its designer and celebrated resident. While Barton is well known for establishing the Red Cross in the United States, she had a number of other careers, each of them standing out in some way. During the Civil War, Barton, who previously spent years as a teacher and a principal, insisted on going to the front lines of major battles, where she worked under heavy fire tending the wounded. She toiled feverishly, and generally alone, at many of the war's largest battles--including Fredericksburg, the Wilderness and Spotsylvania Court House. At Chantilly, an Army surgeon said in awe that Barton brought desperately needed supplies to field hospitals and worked on the wounded for five days in pouring rain--on two hours' sleep. Born in 1821 in North Duxford, Mass., Barton was the youngest of five children and came along 10 years after her next-youngest sibling. She was an unusual child who had an unusual upbringing. She once said that, as a child, she had no friends and six teachers. As an adult, she was intense and exceptionally bright--a driven, focused person who insisted on doing everything herself. She was independent to a fault. That trait would be both her greatest asset and--to her critics later in the Red Cross--her greatest flaw.
1. Be respectful. No personal attacks.
|
|
|||||||||||||
