Clarissa Harlowe Barton

Paper Summary:

The biography of Clarissa Harlowe Barton cannot be written without also writing at least in some measure the history of the American Red Cross as well as that of the history of nursing. This paper examines the work of the founder of the American Red Cross, looking at both her own life and at her work during the major battles of the American Civil War. In order to set her work in the proper historical framework, the paper also provides a very brief overview of the history of nursing as a profession, a profession which Barton is "along with Florence Nightingale" responsible in many ways for creating in its contemporary form.
Although this paper focuses on the work that Barton performed during the Civil War, it also mentions her relief work in the yellow-fever pestilence in Florida (1887); in the Johnstown, Pennsylvania, flood (1889); in the Russian famine (1891); among the Armenians (1896); in the Spanish-American War (1898); and in the South African War (1899-1902). The last work that she personally directed was the relief of victims of the flood at Galveston, Texas, in 1900, before she died in Glen Echo, Maryland, on April 12, 1912.

From the Paper:

"During the depression of the 1930s, many nurses were unemployed, and the number of schools declined. World War II, however, brought about another increased demand for nurses. The Cadet Nurse Corps, established in 1943, subsidized nursing education for thousands of young people who agreed to engage in nursing for the duration of the war. Since the end of World War II, technological advances in medicine and health have required nurses to become knowledgeable about sophisticated equipment, to learn about an increasing number of medications, and to design nursing care appropriate for the health care delivery system during a period of rapid change. Barton's nursing work on the battlefield helped lay down the fundamentals for nursing during wartime, and the work of nurses in MASH and other military units throughout the 20th century owes much to what she saw and did during the Civil War."

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