Clara Barton - Nurse, Humanitarian, and Activist
Originally uploaded by Butterflies-R-Free

Clara Barton is best known as being the founder of the American Red Cross and, prior to this significant achievement, as a nurse who tended to countless wounded soldiers on Civil War battlefields. Her tireless, compassionate work during the Battle of Antietam in the Civil War would inspire praise of her as being "the true heroine of the age, the angel of the battlefield"—the latter part of the phrase associated with her name thereafter. But why this courageous woman chose to pursue a challenging and difficult career path despite great obstacles, and how much else she accomplished and endured in her long and productive life, is just as noteworthy as the work for which she is well remembered.