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Auction: 326 - The Numismatic Collector's Series Sale
Lot: 1219

Barton, Clara (December 25, 1821-April 12, 1912). Civil War nurse, founder (1881) and first president of the American Red Cross. ALS, 4to, 2 pages. Glen Echo. Jan.31, 1908. To Roscoe G. Wells, of the National First Aid Association, regarding how little money she is able to send him because of her own needs. "It was a great courtesy of yours to write me a letter all by yourself when your hands are so full. I am neither ignorant, nor unmindful of what 'full hands' nean, neither am I unmindful of the growth and progress of your work. The only dark feature about it, to me, is that I am able to help so little. There has been no lack of willingness or desire. Confidentially, this has not been an easy six months...It is the unexpected conditions & needs of others that cripple us most. Just this happened to me, one time last fall, and just at that moment you, dear fellow, needed a poor little one hundred dollars and I sent what I had..." A truly remarkable letter in that Miss Barton mentions what today's Red Cross is all about - serving the "unexpected conditions and needs of others," helping people devasted by flood, fires, hurricane or any other natural or man made disaster. From the Collection of John Herzog.

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