Clara Barton’s Legacy Through a People’s Lens

Middle and High School People’s History Working Group

November 13, 2021

For their November meeting, the working group invited members of the other two working groups to accompany them on their tour of the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office. As always, our working groups analyze history from a people’s lens, and working group leaders Tif and Nicole made ties between Barton’s work in finding missing soldiers post Civil War with formerly enslaved people taking out newspaper ads to locate family from which they were separated. One working group member shared: "I think the tour was aligned to the people's history in that the story (although about one white woman) is an untold story that doesn't fit the power narrative. Her story is one of feminism, mutual aid, and another example of non-whites being treated (and thought of as more human) based on military service."