Lot 225

Clara Barton "In reaching out to save others, be careful to save yourselves," Fantastic 2x Signed ALS Inspiring Graduating Nurses from Clara Barton's LA Hospital!

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Clara Barton "In reaching out to save others, be careful to save yourselves," Fantastic 2x Signed ALS Inspiring Graduating Nurses from Clara Barton's LA Hospital!

Estimate: $800 - $900

Current Bid: $240

(1 Bid)

June 17, 2026 10:00 AM EDT
Live Auction
Wilton, CT, US

Description:

Clara Barton
Glen Echo, MD, May 21, 1907
Clara Barton "In reaching out to save others, be careful to save yourselves," Fantastic 2x Signed ALS Inspiring Graduating Nurses from Clara Barton's LA Hospital!
ALS

Autograph Letter Signed (ALS) written entirely in the hand of famed humanitarian Clara Barton, dated May 21, 1907, on official "The National First Aid Association of America" letterhead. Expected age toning, horizontal and vertical mailing folds, scattered handling wear, and minor ink fading consistent with early twentieth-century correspondence. Several handwritten revisions and crossed-out passages remain visible, offering additional authenticity and insight into Barton's drafting process. Measures 8" x 10" folded.

Addressed to the nurses of the first graduating class of the Clara Barton Hospital of Los Angeles, and penned in flowing brown ink, Barton warmly welcomes the graduating nurses "into the ranks of those who have devoted their lives to the cause of humanity," while praising the value of their training and the responsibilities entrusted to professional nurses. She reflects on the graduates carrying her own name into their future work and expresses pride in their mission to comfort the suffering, restore health, and aid humanity. Barton's remarks beautifully illustrate the compassionate ideals that defined her lifelong commitment to relief work and medical service. Particularly powerful is Barton's moving admonition to the graduating nurses: "Lives fraught with germs of holy usefulness lie before you. In reaching out to save others, be careful to save yourselves as well, ‘that your days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God Giveth thee'. This is one of your prime duties."

In full:

"Nurses of the first gathering class of the Clara Barton Hospital of Los Angeles -

It is my privilege to tell you of the great pleasures that comes to me through a dispatch from your honored head, inviting me to send a greeting to the first graduating class of your hospital.

For every reason this is a pleasures to me. First, I would rejoice, if only to welcome you into the ranks of those who have devoted their lives to the cause of humanity, as the trained nurse surely has. Added to this you have taken your instructions from a teacher as dear to me as he can be to you, and you go out to do him honor. Then still more personal, and nearer if possible; you take my own name with you into all your future work; who so appropriately as I could greet you with loving friendship?

I need offer you no words of advice. You go out armed for life's warfare as I never was, and as only those with your training can be. The precious lives entrusted to your call, you will know best of all how to cherish and to save, to bring back to life, happiness and friends, the suffering, the disconsolate and disbarring, and to help to plant the roses of health where the pales of death has spread.

Lives fraught with germs of holy usefulness lie before you. In reaching out to save others, be careful to save yourselves as well, "that your days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God Giveth thee". This is one of your prime duties.

Nurses, we may never meet, but accept this greeting from one who knows you little, yet leaves you well.

Clara Barton"

Clara Barton (1821-1912), founder of the American Red Cross, remained one of the most respected humanitarian figures in the United States long after her departure from the organization in 1904. Through her continued involvement with The National First Aid Association of America, Barton advocated for nursing education, emergency preparedness, public health, and organized humanitarian relief during the final years of her career.

This remarkable 1907 letter was written to commemorate the first graduating class of the Clara Barton Hospital of Los Angeles, an institution named in honor of Barton's groundbreaking contributions to nursing and humanitarian medicine. At a time when professional nursing schools were rapidly developing across America, Barton's personal message to the graduating nurses carried enormous symbolic and inspirational significance. Her words reflect Progressive Era ideals of compassion, service, public health, and civic responsibility that shaped modern nursing and humanitarian care in the early twentieth century.

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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  • Dimensions: 8" x 10"
  • Medium: ALS

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