One of my women’s history road trips was to photograph the schoolhouse in Bordentown, NJ, where Clara Barton, who was born on 12/25/1821, taught from 1852-1854. The city “fathers” didn’t support her idea of educating children in a free school, one of the first in the state, until the enrollment mushroomed from 6 children to 600 in a year! Then they built a 3-story schoolhouse & hired a male principal to supervise Barton! She quit and went on to eventually establish and first run the American Red Cross. The schoolhouse was restored by funds raised by school children in 1921.

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