Like many authoritative historical figure you acquire about in grade schooltime , Clara Bartonhas been purify into a couple salient accomplishments : she was a nursemaid during theCivil War , and she found the American Red Cross .
Though impressive , these item do n’t exactly capture how enchanting her life history truly was . Barton survived two near - expiry experiences , first when she contracted dysentery as a 5 - year - onetime ( neighbors , assumingshe would perish , actually started spreading the Bible about her destruction untimely ) . And again during the Battle of Antietam , when a bullet train tore through her garb sleeve . “ I have never mended that maw in my sleeve , ” she later wrote .
The “ Angel of the Battlefield ” also founded a public schooltime in New Jersey , established an organisation to serve sept member track down missingCivil Warsoldiers , and reallyloved African tea . An Indiana Congressman even charge her a black and whitened kitten as a thank - you giving for her relief efforts at Antietam ; she named it Tommy .
The reason we cognise so much about Barton ’s lifetime is mostly because she chronicled it in Holy Writ likeThe Story of My ChildhoodandA Story of the Red Cross . But for every wide circulated work of Barton ’s , there are thousands of private page — letters , diary entranceway , poems , speech , and more — that few people have ever seen .
To make all those documents more well approachable , the Library of Congress is currently digitize the whole collection , and they ’re ask the world to facilitate transliterate it . The largest category that still need transcription is a series of letterbooks with Red bad-tempered - related parallelism and personal reflections on her career from 1876 through 1911 . Anyone enter in the project will quick realize that authorship letters was as integral to 19th - century caper as get off emails is to present - 24-hour interval ones .
If you ’re concerned in transcribe a fleck of Barton ’s legacy , you’re able to read more and sign uphere .
