American Artifacts Preview: Clara Barton's Missing Soldiers Office March 29, 2012

Favorite:

Between 1861 and 1868, Clara Barton, known as the Angel of the Battlefield and founder of the American Red Cross, lived in a Washington, DC boarding house. She employed twelve clerks on the third floor in her "Missing Soldiers Office," where they received over 60,000 letters from families searching for lost sons and husbands.

In 1996, Richard Lyons, a carpenter for the General Services Administration was helping to prepare the building for demolition when he discovered an original Clara Barton office sign in the attic.

American History TV visited the building on seventh street to learn about the Missing Soldiers Office, and to hear the story of Richard Lyons, who worked alone for months to save the building from demolition.