BARTON, CLARA, - NINE AUTOGRAPH LETTERS 1899-1911..
1899. Barton, Clara. NINE AUTOGRAPH LETTERS 1899-1911. A group of letters written by the "Angel of the Battlefield," who, after caring for the soldiers of the Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War, brought about the USA's adoption of the Geneva Convention, and founded the American Red Cross. In 1904, after 23 years as President of the American Red Cross, she was induced with some difficulty to step down at the age of 83. She then turned her energies to a new organization, the First Aid Association, which she ran until her death in 1912. The first letter, dated 12/26/99, thanks "Sister Harriette" for a gift, and speaks of an illness which kept her from her correspondence, some 15-20 letters a day. (2pp., 9 1/2" x 5 1/2"). Four letters from 1906 concern the First Aid Association. One mentions the visit of a newspaper reporter. (3pp, 6 1/2" x 5") One, to a Miss Kessel, quotes General Von Schelle, Delegate General of the Belgian Red Cross, on the "International Committee for the International First Aid Association," and from a "grateful remembrance" in the Record of the International Red Cross Conference in London. (4pp., 8"x5") In a third CB plans to put General Von Schell at the head of a committee, as others will follow: "The most of men in such matters follow more readily than they lead." She goes on to criticize her successors in the American Red Cross. "I have felt from the first that they would spoil their machine when they commenced to operate it, and have worked with all the more hope of getting another ready to take its place. This we shall do - the First Aid will take up the field work one day. And with all their two or more years service they have never succeeded in breaking the confidence of the public in the old workers, or the old head." (4pp., 6 3/4" by 5"). An incomplete letter to Miss Kessel sends thanks to doctors who have helped in the cause. (1p., 6 3/4" x 5"). A letter to her secretary on 8/27/07 praises the new "Report," a "little red brochure," and speaks of a request that she go to Cleveland to start a branch of the First Aid. "I see so much before me, and have so little time." (4pp., 6 3/4" x 5"). On 2/2/09 she writes to Major General Roscoe Wells at the Boston Office of First Aid, of an accident which disabled her for three months, a backlog of 300 letters to answer, and an annoying book called "The Emergency Service" claiming priority over the First Aid. Two.
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