Clara Barton Silver Spoon With "CB" and Trans-Atlantic Telegram En Route to International Red Cross Conference

Ohio Congressman and First Comptroller of the U.S. Treasury William Lawrence was instrumental in gaining the support of President James Garfield for the foundation of the American Red Cross in 1881. With Clara Barton as president, Lawrence served as vice president of the American Red Cross. In August 1884, Barton traveled to Geneva, Switzerland, leading the first American delegation to the International Red Cross Conference.

Barton likely sent this telegram when the steamship RMS City of Chester on which she traveled docked at Liverpool late in August.

At the conference in September, American delegate A. S. Solomons was elected vice president of the congress. Barton was one of only four women delegates, and the conference unanimously passed a resolution complimentary of Barton's work.

CLARA BARTON, Partially Printed Document, Telegram to William Lawrence, ca. August 1884, Liverpool, England. 2 pp., 7.875" x 11". Some uneven toning, generally good.

Excerpt
The brief message reads, "Safe / tell / folks / send / authority / invite / nations" and is sent from "Clara Barton" to "Lawrence / Comptroller Treasury / Washington."

Together with a beautiful American coin silver fruit spoon, measuring 9" x 2.25", dating from the second quarter of the 19th century and taken from the Clara Barton House. The spoon, made by Hotchkiss and Schreuder, Syracuse, New York, features a delicate bunch of strawberries engraved on the bowl, with "CB" engraved into the handle. Some oxidation, with light wear and scratches. Very fine. 

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 a 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.

William Lawrence (1819-1899) was born in Ohio and graduated from Franklin College in Ohio in 1838 and from the law school at the University of Cincinnati in 1840. He gained admission to the bar and established a practice in Bellefontaine, Ohio. He served in the Ohio House of Representatives (1846-1848), Ohio Senate (1849-1852, 1854-1856), and the U.S. House of Representatives (1865-1871, 1873-1877). In 1868, he drafted the first legislation to create the U.S. Department of Justice, which was finally created in 1870. In 1880, President Rutherford B. Hayes appointed Lawrence as the First Comptroller of the Treasury, a position he held until 1885. Lawrence appealed on behalf of Clara Barton to President James Garfield to support the creation of the American Red Cross in 1881 and served as that organization's first Vice President. He was also instrumental in convincing the United States to ratify the Geneva Convention in March 1882.

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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