Clara Barton - Who Is It?

By ALLISON HARRELL
Texian Time Machine & Outreach Coordinator

Clarissa “Clara” Harlowe Barton was born on Christmas Day 1821 in Massachusetts. She was a very timid child, but her family constantly tried to bring her out of her shell. As an adult, her career spanned from school director to patent office clerk -- but one constant is that she kept being passed over for promotions and jobs in favor of her male counterparts.

During the Civil War, she felt that it was her Christian duty to aid the soldiers, so she began gathering and distributing medical supplies. After the war was over, she worked with the Office of Missing Soldiers to identify missing and dead soldiers. She then went to Europe and met Dr. Louis Appia, who convinced her to start an American branch of the Red Cross.

Clara Barton, 1866

Family Activity: Who Is It?

Clara Barton worked a lot with the Office of Missing Soldiers to reunite soldiers with their families. This was in a time before photographs were widely available. Imagine having to describe a loved one and hoping that someone matched that description! Could you do it?

1. Have everyone write or draw a description of a specific relative or family friend of their choosing. (Remember that when someone is missing, they are not available to be looked at for reference -- so this has to be done from memory! You can also write down family/friends' names and have everyone draw a person's name from the hat.)
2. Once everyone is finished, number each person's description or drawing with a randomly-assigned number. 
3. Read each description and show each image aloud. On a separate sheet of paper, have everyone write out their guess for each of the descriptions/pictures.
4. Once everyone has guessed, have the author/artist explain who it is and why they made the choices that they did.                                                                                                                       

Scoring

1. Anyone who got the answer right gets a point
2. The artist/describer gets a point if everyone correctly guesses his/her person
3. The winner is the person with the most points at the end