News
An Interview with Clara Barton
March 1, 2011
In recognition of Women’s History Month, Longyear Museum has selected from its collection a published interview with Clara Barton, a remarkable woman in her own right, in which she speaks out about her contemporary, Mary Baker Eddy— that she is the “nation’s greatest woman.” Clara Barton, known as the “Angel of the Battlefield” for her outstanding humanitarian efforts especially during the American Civil War, founded the American Red Cross in 1881, and devoted her life to helping others.
This interview was conducted by Viola Rodgers, and published on Monday, January 6, 1908, in The New York American, picked up also by The Boston American on that day, and subsequently reprinted in the January 11, 1908 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel and February 1908 issue of The Christian Science Journal.
In response to Miss Barton’s comments, Mrs. Eddy writes in that same issue of the Journal:
“… Miss Clara Barton dipped her pen in my heart, and traced its emotions, motives, and object. … Now if Miss Barton were not a venerable soldier, patriot, philanthropist, moralist, and stateswoman, I should shrink from such salient praise. But in consideration of all that Miss Barton really is, and knowing that she can bear the blows which may follow said description of her soul-visit, I will say amen, so be it.”
Read the full article in the Members' Vault
Above: Image of The Boston American interview with Clara Barton on Christian Science and Mary Baker Eddy, published January 6, 1908. Longyear Museum collection.
View All News