March is not only Women’s History Month, but it is also Red Cross Month.
Women’s History Month was first celebrated in March 1987. Red Cross Month was first celebrated in March 1943 by Franklin Delano Roosevelt to raise awareness of the organization and its humanitarian mission.
By honoring American icon Clara Barton, the Bordentown Historical Society celebrates both Women’s History Month (because of all her incredible accomplishments) and Red Cross Month, becayse Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross in 1881. She led that organization as its president for the next 23 years, a position of leadership and authority that was unprecedented for women at that time.
Clara Barton made her impact on Bordentown, the State of New Jersey, and the country by teaching in Bordentown in 1852. She began teaching in the one-room schoolhouse that is still standing at the corner of Crosswicks and East Burlington Streets, which today is owned by the Bordentown Historical Society.
She clearly saw the need to educate the young children of Bordentown whose parents could not afford to send their children to private schools. Clara volunteered to teach for no pay. Starting with only 6 students, the number rapidly increased to 600 by the end of her first year. In so doing, she established the first public school in New Jersey.
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Below are some of Clara Barton’s incredible accomplishments:
She was a teacher at a time when most teachers were men;
She was the very first full time female employee of the federal government, paid at the same rate of pay as men. Equal pay with men was unheard of at that time;
She was one of the few women to serve on the frontlines of the civil war and risked her life to care for wounded soldiers. In recognition of her efforts she became known as the “angel of the battlefield”;
She was an advocate for equal rights for all, regardless of race, religion, nationality or sex. She supported womens’ rights activists Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton;
She was the first woman to lead a massive organization, founding the American Red Cross in 1881, an organization which became the foremost disaster assistance organization in the country. She served as its president for 23 years;
Clara Barton was an early lobbyist: she urged influential politicians to adopt the treaty of geneva and she was the only female delegate attending the conference in Geneva in 1884;
She advocated for the “right of a woman to her own property, her own children, her own home, her just individual claim before the law, to her freedom of action, to her personal liberty”;
She advocated for equal pay for women, as early as 1840 stating: “I may sometimes be willing to work for nothing, but if paid at all, I shall never do a man’s work for less than a man’s pay.”
(Authors’ note: we are still working on that one, Clara!)
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The Bordentown Historical Society is proud of its museum-quality Joseph Bonaparte exhibit located in our Meeting House, 302 Farnsworth Ave. The BHS designed, constructed and furnished the exhibit which is the largest exhibit in the United States about the once King of Naples and Spain, and elder brother of Napoleon.
Joseph fled to the U.S. after Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo in 1815. He lived in Bordentown from 1816 to 1839 and brought with him a library that was bigger than the Library of Congress and many famous paintings and other works of art. His estate, Point Breeze — now owned by the State of New Jersey and the City of Bordentown — covered 1800 acres. The BHS exhibit has more than 50 paintings, books, furniture and artifacts on display.
The Clara Barton Schoolhouse is open by appointment (call or email us). The Joseph Bonaparte exhibit is open 2-3 Saturdays/month (schedule is on our website). We will also be having a number of very interesting lectures and events throughout the year. These will be listed on our website, bordentownhistory.org, phone: 609-298-1740, email: bordentownhistoricalsociety@gmail.com.
Photo of Clara Barton circa 1866 by Matthew Benjamin Brady.,
