Existing comment:
Clara Barton Lived and Worked Here
The Discovery
In 1997, the US General Services Administration (GSA) discovered clothing, papers, and other nineteenth century items in the attic of 437 Seventh Street, NW. This discovery brought attention to a suite of rooms on the third floor that had served as Clara Barton's home, storeroom, and office. The rooms and artifacts, including a sign identifying Room 9 as the Missing Soldiers Office, provide new insight into Clara Barton's experience of the Civil War and her efforts to relieve the suffering of Union soldiers and their families. GSA maintains a preservation easement on the third floor. Work is underway to conserve these spaces and open them to the public as a museum.
Hundreds of Socks
Among the artifacts found in the attic above Clara Barton's rooms were 171 whole socks, as well as nearly 100 carefully severed sock tops and bottoms. Why save dirty and worn socks? Harsh weather conditions and constant walking took a toll on soldiers' feet. Fresh socks were needed to prevent blisters, frostbite, and gangrene. Unprepared for the war, the Union Army could not keep the troops adequately supplied. Charitable organizations, such as the Sanitary Commission, exhorted women to knit socks for soldiers. Perhaps Clara Barton collected these used cotton socks on the battlefield, bringing them home to wash, mend, and eventually redistribute to troops.
"It was a kind of a tent life, but she was happy in it."
-- Frances Vassall, close friend of Clara Barton
Even in the turbulent war years, Clara Barton strove to make her quarters as attractive and functional as possible. Evidence of her activities can be seen in the large room created by removing dividing walls to accommodate battlefield supplies; the mail slot cut into the office door to accommodate the volumes of correspondence for the Missing Soldiers Office; and the number 9 painted on the door, corresponding to the sign directing visitors up the steep stairs to the third story. The white striped wallpaper still hanging in her small personal chamber and the trove of colorful paper remnants found in the attic tell of her love of pattern and skill at creating "home" wherever she went.
21,000 Families Received Letters
In early spring 1865, the closing days of the Civil War, Clara Barton found herself inundated with requests from families anxious for word of their missing loved ones. In response, she established the Office of Correspondence with Friends of the Missing Men of the U.S. Army (Missing Soldiers Office). But how did Barton and a handful of clerks manage to provide information to over 21,000 families in the span of less than four years, using nineteenth-century technology and operating out of her rooms in this building? Although Barton and her assistants wrote an astonishing 41,855 letters, even more was accomplished using form letters. Preprinted for a variety of purposes, 58,693 form letters were sent as part of a highly efficient information exchange. In addition, 1,500 names were printed on large sheets titled, "Roll of Missing Soldiers." These rolls were posted throughout the country, with the request that information be sent to the office at 437 Seventh Street. By the end of 1868, five editions were published and 99,057 copies distributed.
In cooperation with the General Services Administration (GSA), the National Museum of Civil War Medicine is developing an interpretive program to operate a museum focused on Clara Barton's period of occupancy in GSA's preservation easement species. The museum is scheduled to open in 2011. |