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Clara Barton Archive Receives Book from Empress of Germany through Diplomatic Channels
Clara Barton Archive Receives Book from Empress of Germany through Diplomatic Channels
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Clara Barton Receives Book from Empress of Germany through Diplomatic Channels

CLARA BARTON, Autograph Letter Signed, to Sevellon A. Brown, February 21, 1883, Washington, D.C. On folded "The American Association of the Red Cross" stationery. 2 pp., 5.25" x 8".  Along with an  Autograph Letter Signed, to H. Sidney Everett, February 21, 1883, Washington, D.C. On "The American Association of the Red Cross" stationery. 2 pp., 8" x 10.5". Both with expected folds; very good.

These two letters by Clara Barton thank the chief clerk of the State Department and the secretary of the American Legation in Berlin for the transmission of a gift from the Empress of Germany. Impressed with Barton's organization of an association of Red Cross societies in the United States, Queen of Prussia and German Empress Augusta of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (1811-1890) sent to Barton a copy of Handbuch der Deutschen Frauen Vereine unter dem Rothen Kreuz (Handbook of German Women's Associations under the Red Cross), published in Berlin in 1881. Empress Augusta was the mother of Barton's close friend Louise, the Grand Duchess of Baden. According to Secretary Everett, Her Majesty sent the volume to show Barton "how in Germany the women's national relief associations which try to relieve suffering or calamity in time of peace are by their organization bound to serve the Red Cross Societies in time of War." As her responses make clear, Barton was delighted with the gift.

Complete Transcripts
Washington D.C. February 21, 1883
1013 I St. N.W.
To Mr Sevellon A. Brown
Chief Clerk of the Dept of State / U.S.A.
My dear Mr. Brown,
While thanking you most sincerely for the congratulations expressed in your letter of the 16th instant, conveying to me at once, the intelligence of the beautiful gift of Her Majesty, The Empress of Germany, and the fact that you had kindly transmitted it to me, I must still further depend upon your courtesy by begging that you will transmit through your Department to Mr. Everett, the Honorable Secretary of Legation at Berlin the enclosed communication.
I am, my dear sir,
Very truly yours
Clara Barton

[Enclosure:]
Washington, D.C., February 21, 1883
To. H. Sidney Everett
Secretary of the American Legation at Berlin
Dear Sir.
Your letter to Mr. Brown, Chief Clerk of the Department of State at Washington has been transmitted to me, informing me that the Empress of Germany has sent to you a Book with the request that you would have it transmitted to me, to show to me by the contents of the Book, how, in Germany the Women's National Relief Associations which try to relieve suffering or calamity in time of peace, are, by their organization, bound to serve the Red Cross Societies in time of war and that Her Majesty thinks this publication may be of some interest to me.
The Book alluded to has come to my hands through the courtesy of Mr. Brown, and your kind care, for which I am grateful to you.
I desire that you will convey to Her Majesty my most grateful thanks for the Book itself, and far more for the proof it brings of her deep interest in, and care for, the great work of humanity, which, through the Societies of the Red Cross is quietly, and almost unobservedly knitting peoples and nations together, by the tender ties of mutual services to the sick and helpless of whatever nationality or race, whether in peace or war.
For this, and other manifestations of that interest previously given by Her Majesty to me personally, I desire you to thank the Empress for myself, as well as for the American Associations which I have the honor to represent.
Believe me dear Sir
Very truly yours,
Clara Barton.

Also includes:
* H. Sidney Everett, Manuscript Copy, to Sevellon A. Brown, January 22, 1883, Berlin, Germany. 3 pp., 8" x 10".
"I send by the Despatch bag to-day a parcel addressed to you which contains a book, which has been sent to me direct by the Empress of Germany with the request that I will have it transmitted to Miss Clara Barton as Her Majesty has seen by the "Bulletin International des Societes de Secours aux Militaires Blesses" that Miss Barton has succeeded in forming an association of the Red Cross in America...."
* Sevellon A. Brown, Manuscript Letter Signed, to Walter P. Phillips, February 16, 1883, Washington, D.C. On Department of State letterhead. 1 p., 4.875" x 8".
"I transmit herewith a parcel containing a book presented by the Empress of Germany to Miss Clara Barton. As I do not know Miss Barton's address, may I ask you to kindly cause the package to be forwarded to its destination."
* Sevellon A. Brown, Manuscript Letter Signed, to Clara Barton, February 16, 1883, Washington, D.C. On Department of State letterhead. 2 pp. 4.875" x 8".
"It affords me great pleasure to transmit herewith a parcel containing a book presented to you by Her Majesty the Empress of Germany as a token of her high appreciation of the success of your efforts for the formation of an Association of the Red Cross in America."

Clara Barton (1821-1912) was born in Massachusetts and received a good education though she was painfully shy. Her parents persuaded her to become a schoolteacher and she received her teacher's certificate in 1839. After working as a teacher for a dozen years, she attended the Clinton Liberal Institute in New York to continue her education. In 1852, she successfully opened a free school in Bordentown, the first free school in New Jersey. Demoted after the town built a new school building and hired a male principal, Barton quit. In 1855, she moved to Washington, D.C., and began work as a clerk in the Patent Office, the first woman to receive a substantial clerkship and equal pay with a man. After three years, the administration of James Buchanan fired her because of her "Black Republican" political views. After living with friends in Massachusetts for three years, she returned to Washington and took a position as temporary copyist in the Patent Office. After the Baltimore Riot of April 1861 against Massachusetts troops, Barton nursed forty of the victims back to health and learned valuable lessons about aiding soldiers. She began collecting medical supplies and distributing them to soldiers. In August 1862, she received permission from Quartermaster Daniel Rucker to work on the front lines. Throughout the war, she distributed medicine and food to wounded soldiers in close proximity to the battles of Cedar Mountain, Second Bull Run, Antietam, and Fredericksburg. In 1864, General Benjamin Butler placed her in charge of hospitals at the front of the Army of the James. For her Civil War service, Barton became known as the "Angel of the Battlefield" and the "Florence Nightingale of America." After the war, she ran the Office of Missing Soldiers in Washington, helping to locate the remains of more than 22,000 missing soldiers. She also lectured about her experiences and became associated with the women's suffrage movement and the civil rights movement for African Americans. In 1869, she became acquainted with the Red Cross in Switzerland and aided military hospitals during the Franco-Prussian War. In 1881, she founded the American Red Cross and became its first president. She continued to work in the field in response to natural disasters and wars as late as 1900.

Sevellon A. Brown (1843-1895) was born in New York and in 1864, Secretary of State William H. Seward appointed him as a clerk in the State Department. He served as the Chief Clerk of the State Department for many years between 1873 and 1893.

Henry Sidney Everett (1834-1898) was born in Massachusetts, the second son and fifth child of famed Senator, Governor, and Secretary of State Edward Everett (1794-1865). In 1855, Everett graduated from Harvard College, of which his father had served as president from 1846 to 1848, and he received a master's degree from Harvard in 1862. In 1866, he married Katherine Pickman Fay, with whom he had five children. Everett served as secretary of the American Legation in Berlin, Germany, in 1883.

Walter P. Phillips (1846-1920) was born in Massachusetts and at the age of 30 invented the "Phillips Code" for transmitting the most commonly used words and groups of words over telegraph wires with abbreviations. From 1883, the Mutual Union Telegraph used the Phillips code successfully until 1886, when Western Union bought out Mutual Union. Phillips became an executive in the United Press news agency founded in 1882. Phillips had known Clara Barton since 1878 and served as secretary general of the American Red Cross until 1900.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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