Editing Clara Barton (section)

==The American Red Cross==
[[File:Clara Barton cross monument at Antietam battlefield.TIF|thumb|Detail of Clara Barton monument at [[Antietam National Battlefield]], with red cross formed of a brick from the home where she was born]]

Clara Barton achieved widespread recognition by delivering lectures around the country about her war experiences from 1865 to 1868. During this time she met [[Susan B. Anthony]] and began an association with the woman's [[suffrage]] movement. She also became acquainted with [[Frederick Douglass]] and became an activist for [[civil rights]].  After her countrywide tour she was both mentally and physically exhausted and under doctor's orders to go somewhere that would take her far from her current work. She closed the Missing Soldiers Office in 1868 and traveled to Europe. In 1869, during her trip to [[Geneva]], [[Switzerland]], Barton was introduced to the [[International Red Cross|Red Cross]] and [[Louis Appia|Dr. Appia]]; he later would invite her to be the representative for the American branch of the Red Cross and help her find financial benefactors for the start of the American Red Cross. She was also introduced to [[Henry Dunant]]'s book ''[[A Memory of Solferino]]'', which called for the formation of national societies to provide relief voluntarily on a neutral basis.

In the beginning of the [[Franco-Prussian War]], in 1870, she assisted the [[Princess Louise of Prussia|Grand Duchess of Baden]] in the preparation of military hospitals and gave the Red Cross society much aid during the war. At the joint request of the German authorities and the [[Strasbourg]] Comité de Secours, she superintended the supplying of work to the poor of Strasbourg in 1871, after the [[Siege of Paris (1870-1871)|Siege of Paris]], and in 1871 had charge of the public distribution of supplies to the destitute people of Paris. At the close of the war, she received honorable decorations of the Golden Cross of [[Baden]] and the Prussian [[Iron Cross]].<ref>{{Appletons'|wstitle=Barton, Clara|year=1900|inline=1}}</ref>

When Barton returned to the United States, she inaugurated a movement to gain recognition for the [[International Committee of the Red Cross|International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)]] by the United States government.<ref name="Epler">{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/lifeclarabarton00eplegoog |title=The Life of Clara Barton |first=Percy Harold |last=Epler |publisher=Macmillan |year=1915 |access-date=September 28, 2010}}</ref> In 1873, she began work on this project.  In 1878, she met with President [[Rutherford B. Hayes]], who expressed the opinion of most Americans at that time which was the U.S. would never again face a calamity like the Civil War. Barton finally succeeded during the administration of President [[Chester Arthur]], using the argument that the new [[American Red Cross]] could respond to crises other than war such as natural disasters like earthquakes, forest fires, and hurricanes.

Barton became President of the American branch of the society, which held its first official meeting at her apartment in Washington, DC, May 21, 1881.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Michals |first=Debra |date=2015 |title=Clara Barton |url=https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/clara-barton |access-date=February 23, 2024 |website=National Women's History Museum}}</ref> The first local society was founded August 22, 1881 in [[Dansville, Livingston County, New York]], where she maintained a country home.<ref>{{cite web |title=History – Founder Clara Barton |last=Marks |first=Mary Jo |publisher=American Red Cross |url=http://www.redcross.org/about-us/history/clara-barton |access-date=May 21, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=McCullough |first=David |author-link=David McCullough |title=The Johnstown Flood |year=1968 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York |isbn=978-0671395308 |page=239}}</ref>

The society's role changed with the advent of the [[Spanish–American War]] during which it aided refugees and prisoners of the civil war. Once the Spanish–American War was over the grateful people of Santiago built a statue in honor of Barton in the town square, which still stands there today. In the United States, Barton was praised in numerous newspapers and reported about Red Cross operations in person.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dromi |first1=Shai M. |title=Above the fray: The Red Cross and the making of the humanitarian NGO sector |date=2020 |publisher=Univ. of Chicago Press |location=Chicago |isbn=978-0226680101 |pages=102–106 |url=https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/A/bo46479924.html}}</ref>

[[File:Clara Barton 2021 stamp of Armenia.png|thumb|Barton on a 2021 stamp of [[Armenia]]]]
Domestically in 1884 she helped in the floods on the Ohio river, provided Texas with food and supplies during the famine of 1887, took workers to Illinois in 1888 after a tornado, and that same year took workers to Florida for the yellow fever epidemic.<ref name="McCullough 1968">{{cite book |last=McCullough |first=David |title=The Johnstown Flood |year=1968 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York |isbn=978-0671395308}}</ref> Within days after the [[Johnstown Flood]] in 1889, she led her delegation of 50 doctors and nurses in response,<ref name="McCullough 1968" /> founding what would become [[Conemaugh Health System]]. In 1896, responding to the humanitarian crisis in the Ottoman Empire of the [[Hamidian massacres]], Barton arrived in  [[Constantinople]] February 15. Barton along with Minister Terrell spoke with Tewfik Pasha, the Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs, to procure the right to enter the interior.  Barton herself stayed in Constantinople to conduct the business of the expedition. Her General Field Agent, J. B. Hubbell, M.D.; two Special Field Agents, E. M. Wistar and C. K. Wood; and Ira Harris M. D., Physician in Charge of Medical Relief in Zeitoun and Marash, traveled to the Armenian provinces in the spring of 1896, providing relief and humanitarian aid to the Armenian population who were victims of the massacres done in 1894–1896 by Ottoman Empire. Barton also worked in hospitals in Cuba in 1898 at the age of 77.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Ardalan, Christine |title=Clara Barton's 1898 battles in Cuba: a reexamination of her nursing contributions|journal=Florida Atlantic Comparative Studies Journal|volume= 12|issue=1 |year=2010|url=http://home.fau.edu/peralta/web/FACS/CLARABARTON.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221010/http://home.fau.edu/peralta/web/FACS/CLARABARTON.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-10 |url-status=live |pages=1–20}}</ref> Barton's last field operation as President of the American Red Cross was helping victims of the [[Galveston Hurricane of 1900|Galveston hurricane]] in 1900. The operation established an orphanage for children.
[[File:Clara Barton 1904.jpg|thumb| Photo by [[James E. Purdy]] (1904)]]
As criticism arose of her mixing professional and personal resources, Barton was forced to resign as president of the American Red Cross in 1904 at the age of 83 because her egocentric leadership style fit poorly into the formal structure of an organizational charity.<ref name=":1" /> She had been forced out of office by a new generation of all-male scientific experts who reflected the realistic efficiency of the Progressive Era rather than her idealistic humanitarianism.<ref>Burton, David Henry (1995) ''Clara Barton: In the Service of Humanity''. Greenwood.</ref> In memory of the courageous women of the civil war, the Red Cross Headquarters was founded. During the dedication, not one person said a word. This was done in order to honor the women and their services.<ref>{{cite journal|jstor=40067384|author=Downing, Margaret Brent|title=The Centenary of Clara Barton and Recent Biographical Sketches of Her Life and Achievements|journal=Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Washington, D.C. |volume=26 |year=1924|pages=121–128}}</ref> After resigning, Barton founded the [[National First Aid Society]].