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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260417T120000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260417T123000
DTSTAMP:20260428T095011
CREATED:20260306T165125Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260414T203355Z
UID:2893-1776427200-1776429000@clarabartonmuseum.org
SUMMARY:Brown Bag Lunch Speaker Series: Dr. Charles Leale and the Medical Treatment of Abraham Lincoln
DESCRIPTION:Please bring your lunch and enjoy a 30 minute lecture at the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum!\n\n\nDr. Charles Leale and the Medical Treatment of Abraham Lincoln\n\nSurgeon General Joseph Barnes witnessed Abraham Lincoln’s autopsy on April 15th\, 1865\, recalling\, “There it lay upon the white china\, a little black mass no bigger than the end of my finger\, dull motionless and harmless\, yet the cause of such mighty changes in the world’s history as we may perhaps never realize.”\n\nThe wound Abraham Lincoln received on the night of April 14th changed American history forever. Doctors immediately attempted to prolong Lincoln’s life using a variety of techniques honed by Civil War medical advancements. Join Park Ranger Jake Sawyer from Ford’s Theatre National Historic Site as he dives into the forensic details of Lincoln’s medical treatment.\n\nReservations are required and may be made here. Admission to the Museum is included in ticket price.
URL:https://clarabartonmuseum.org/event/dr-charles-leale-and-the-medical-treatment-of-abraham-lincoln/
LOCATION:Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum\, 437 7th Street NW\, Washington\, 20004\, United States
CATEGORIES:After the War,Civil War medicine
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Ranger-Jake-Sawyer-at-Mem-Day-23-a.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="Madeleine Thompson":MAILTO:madeleine.thompson@civilwarmed.org
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251115T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251115T153000
DTSTAMP:20260428T095011
CREATED:20250617T192717Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250617T193321Z
UID:2756-1763215200-1763220600@clarabartonmuseum.org
SUMMARY:“All the Elements of Sublimity and Terror”:  Veterans and the Psychological Impact of War
DESCRIPTION:“All the Elements of Sublimity and Terror”: Veterans and the Psychological Impact of War – Stephen A. Goldman\, M.D.\, LFACLP\, DLFAPA \n      War has existed almost since the dawn of civilization\, with its horrors the subject of poems\, novels\, histories\, and memoirs for centuries\, and movies since cinema began. At the same time\, other emotions and experiences associated with battle have been comparatively underemphasized\, if addressed at all. But if Americans who have never gone to war are to understand its full spectrum\, the exhilaration felt by those who have been under fire\, along with combat’s terror\, destructiveness\, and revolting facets\, must be examined. \n      In this talk\, Dr. Stephen A. Goldman will present a unified\, unsparing look at the full panoply of war\, including its terrible grandeur\, surprising elements of beauty\, and life-altering\, multifaceted effect on those who survive. \nAbout the Speaker \nStephen A. Goldman\, M.D. is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association\, war historian\, and the only physician to serve on the Abraham Lincoln Institute Board of Directors. His psychiatric academic career and clinical experience with combat veterans\, decades-long study of American veterans spanning the Civil War to today\, and their ramifications are exemplified in his groundbreaking book\, One More War to Fight: Union Veterans’ Battle for Equality through Reconstruction\, Jim Crow\, and the Lost Cause.
URL:https://clarabartonmuseum.org/event/all-the-elements-of-sublimity-and-terror-veterans-and-the-psychological-impact-of-war/
LOCATION:Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum\, 437 7th Street NW\, Washington\, 20004\, United States
CATEGORIES:After the War
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/photo-Steve-Goldman.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="Madeleine Thompson":MAILTO:madeleine.thompson@civilwarmed.org
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251108T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251108T150000
DTSTAMP:20260428T095011
CREATED:20251028T165832Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251028T190847Z
UID:2825-1762610400-1762614000@clarabartonmuseum.org
SUMMARY:How Civil War Medicine Killed President James Garfield
DESCRIPTION:When an assassin’s bullet struck James Garfield in July 1881\, the battle to save the president’s life began. In the weeks that followed\, doctors argued over how to treat the stricken executive. In the end\, Dr. D. Willard Bliss\, a former Civil War surgeon\, took control of Garfield’s recovery and controversy has surrounded his role ever since. Historian Jake Wynn will discuss the history of Garfield’s recovery and how antiquated techniques learned by Dr. Bliss during his Civil War experience played a role in James Garfield’s death in September 1881.\n\n \nJake Wynn is the Senior Marketing and Communications Manager at Visit Frederick and the former National Museum of Civil War Medicine Director of Interpretation. He is a 2015 graduate of Hood College\, with degrees in history and communications arts. He has formerly worked with Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park\, and the Heart of the Civil War Heritage Area.\n \n\n\nThe presentation is included with admission to the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum and FREE for NMCWM members.
URL:https://clarabartonmuseum.org/event/how-civil-war-medicine-killed-president-james-garfield/
LOCATION:Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum\, 437 7th Street NW\, Washington\, 20004\, United States
CATEGORIES:After the War,Civil War medicine
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/572970199_1231139689044236_8006944514889795137_n.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="Madeleine Thompson":MAILTO:madeleine.thompson@civilwarmed.org
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250816T140000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250816T153000
DTSTAMP:20260428T095011
CREATED:20250617T161613Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250617T193204Z
UID:2752-1755352800-1755358200@clarabartonmuseum.org
SUMMARY:Last Seen: Searching for Missing Loved Ones after the Civil War
DESCRIPTION:Last Seen: Searching for Missing Loved Ones after the Civil War – Professor Judith Giesberg \nIn this talk\, professor Judith Giesberg from Villanova University will discuss her new book\, Last Seen: The Enduring Search by Formerly Enslaved People for their Lost Families\, that follows ten freed people searching for the loved ones who they were sold away from in the domestic slave trade. There was no missing persons department dedicated to this work\, such as the one Clara Barton spearheaded\, no congressional funding allocations\, or help from powerful politicians. So\, members of Freedom Generation relied on Black institutions to help them find their families. How did freed people search for mothers and fathers\, brothers and sisters\, aunts\, uncles\, cousins\, and kin that had been scattered to the four corners of the country by slave traders? Where did they begin? And\, did they find each other? The separation of enslaved people’s families is an often unacknowledged and misunderstood aspect of U.S. history\, and the legacy of these separations has largely been ignored. Giesberg’s talk\, and the book on which it is based\, tells this story.
URL:https://clarabartonmuseum.org/event/last-seen-searching-for-missing-loved-ones-after-the-civil-war/
LOCATION:Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum\, 437 7th Street NW\, Washington\, 20004\, United States
CATEGORIES:After the War,Civil War Missing Soldiers/Prisoners
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/2022-head-shot-1.png
ORGANIZER;CN="Madeleine Thompson":MAILTO:madeleine.thompson@civilwarmed.org
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20250522T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20250522T203000
DTSTAMP:20260428T095011
CREATED:20250419T193401Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20250419T193838Z
UID:2710-1747936800-1747945800@clarabartonmuseum.org
SUMMARY:HumanitiesDC Culture Series: Sex Work in Civil War Washington and Beyond
DESCRIPTION:Washington\, DC saw an unprecedented rise in sex work during the Civil War due to the thousands of Union soldiers who flooded into the city for training. Brothels provided income\, shelter\, and independence for women who\, in some cases\, had few other places to turn. They built businesses and turned access to politicians into influence. \nThe DC neighborhood known as Federal Triangle used to be in DC’s early days\, a notorious slum known as Murder Bay and later as Hooker’s Division during the Civil War. The latter name evolved from the usage of that neighborhood as one of the city’s most concentrated red-light districts. The sex work industry exploded during the war due to the heavy presence of soldiers throughout wartime. \nBut why do we demonize sex workers? Why do we continue to stigmatize sex work? \nJoin HumanitiesDC and guest curator Katie Kirkpatrick in this Culture Series\, which will explore Murder Bay/Hooker’s Division during and after the Civil War. The event will bring together visual representations\, experts on Civil War Washington\, sex-work historians\, and members of today’s sex-work community to discuss how the oldest profession was practiced when it was legal\, compared to today’s ongoing struggle to recognize sex work as real work. \nThe event will begin with a walking tour at 6PM starting at The Willard Center\, 1455 Pennsylvania Avenue NW\, Washington\, DC 20004. Please dress comfortably. \n​The walking tour will be followed by a panel discussion at 7PM at the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum\, 437 7th St NW\, Washington\, DC 20004. Panelists include Dr. Cindy Gueli\, Mark Herlong & Lazima Mills. Conversation moderated by Katie Kirkpatrick. \nASL Interpretation will be provided. \nRegistration is available at the eventbrite link below and will be available on-site at The Willard and at the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office. Advance registration is not required. Entry is based on a first-come\, first-serve basis.  \nFor reasonable accommodation requests regarding access and inclusion\, please contact Jimmy Watkins (jwatkins@humanitiesdc.org) no later than five business days before the start of this event.
URL:https://clarabartonmuseum.org/event/humanitiesdc-culture-series-sex-work-in-civil-war-washington-and-beyond/
LOCATION:Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum\, 437 7th Street NW\, Washington\, 20004\, United States
CATEGORIES:After the War,Free,Special Tour
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20180419T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20180419T190000
DTSTAMP:20260428T095011
CREATED:20180312T134157Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20180413T164001Z
UID:1542-1524160800-1524164400@clarabartonmuseum.org
SUMMARY:The Freedmen's Bureau in Virginia
DESCRIPTION:Hear the remarkable story of the Freedmen’s Bureau in war-torn Virginia after the Civil War.  \nFreedmen’s Bureau office in Richmond\, VA. (Harper’s Weekly\, December 23\, 1865) \nEmmanuel Dabney will discuss  the Bureau of Refugees\, Freedmen\, and Abandoned Lands (usually referred to as the Freedmen’s Bureau) work in Virginia in the aftermath of the Civil War at the Missing Soldiers Office on April 19\, 2018 at 6 PM. The presentation will be “pay-what-you-please.” \nThe Freedmen’s Bureau was created in March 1865 to oversee the abandoned property of Southerners and provide aid to white Unionist refugees and the recently freed people. However\, competing viewpoints from white Republicans\, Democrats\, and black and white Southerners created much disappointment for the recently freed people\, who pretty rapidly took up most of the Bureau’s time and effort. \nDespite racialized violence\, the Bureau was able to provide some assistance to the freed people and help lay the groundwork for their futures in the aftermath of generations of enslavement and their own resistance to slavery. \nEmmanuel Dabney is the curator at Petersburg National Battlefield in Petersburg\, Virginia.
URL:https://clarabartonmuseum.org/event/freedmen-1/
LOCATION:Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum\, 437 7th Street NW\, Washington\, 20004\, United States
CATEGORIES:After the War,Pay-what-you-please
ORGANIZER;CN="Jake Wynn":MAILTO:jake.wynn@civilwarmed.org
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20170511T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20170511T190000
DTSTAMP:20260428T095011
CREATED:20170419T191248Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170419T192132Z
UID:1200-1494525600-1494529200@clarabartonmuseum.org
SUMMARY:Seeking Asylum
DESCRIPTION:Securing Care for Mentally Ill African Americans After the Civil War\nOne of the biggest challenges facing the post Civil War south was the vast number of African Americans who required medical care. The majority of established hospitals were reluctant to accept them as patients\, and those that suffered from mental illness faced the greatest amount of discrimination. Historian Craig Swenson will discuss how the Freedmen’s Bureau established a system of hospitals to handle this growing need and how a former Confederate hospital in Richmond became one of the world’s first asylums dedicated solely to the treatment of African American patients. \nCraig Swenson holds a Bachelor’s Degree in history from the University of Baltimore and currently completing his Master’s Degree in Museum Studies at the Harvard University Extension School. His research deals with medical and architectural history with a focus on mental health. He is currently employed at the National Building Museum where he most recently worked on The Architecture of an Asylum\, an exhibition on St. Elizabeth’s Hospital. He is also an intern at the Museum. \nPre-Register Now
URL:https://clarabartonmuseum.org/event/asylum/
LOCATION:Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum\, 437 7th Street NW\, Washington\, 20004\, United States
CATEGORIES:After the War,Free
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Seeking-Asylum-FB.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="Jake Wynn":MAILTO:jake.wynn@civilwarmed.org
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20170420T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20170420T190000
DTSTAMP:20260428T095011
CREATED:20161214T204911Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170415T185022Z
UID:1119-1492711200-1492714800@clarabartonmuseum.org
SUMMARY:Troubled Refuge
DESCRIPTION:By the end of the Civil War\, nearly half a million slaves had taken refuge behind Union lines\, in what became known as “contraband camps.” These refugee camps were crowded\, dangerous places\, yet some 12-15 percent of the Confederacy’s slave population took almost unimaginable risks to reach them\, and they became the first places many Northerners came to know former slaves en masse. \nRanging from stories of individuals to those of armies on the move to the debates in Congress\, Dr. Chandra Manning will explore what the camps were really like and how former slaves and Union soldiers warily united there to help end slavery\, win the war\, and forge a new version of citizenship that would matter not just for former slaves\, but for all Americans. \nDr. Chandra Manning is an accomplished historian and author of Troubled Refuge and When this Cruel War Was Over. She graduated summa cum laude from Mount Holyoke College in 1993 and received the M.Phil from the National University of Ireland\, Galway\, in 1995. She took her Ph.D. at Harvard in 2002. Manning has taught history at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma\, Washington\, and was Associate Professor of History at Georgetown University. Currently\, she serves as Special Advisor to the Dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. \nRegister Now
URL:https://clarabartonmuseum.org/event/troubled-refuge/
LOCATION:Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum\, 437 7th Street NW\, Washington\, 20004\, United States
CATEGORIES:After the War,Free
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Troubled-Refuge.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="Amelia Grabowski":MAILTO:amelia.grabowski@civilwarmed.org
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20170413T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20170413T190000
DTSTAMP:20260428T095011
CREATED:20170127T145041Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170331T164104Z
UID:1131-1492106400-1492110000@clarabartonmuseum.org
SUMMARY:Weeping No More
DESCRIPTION:Southern Black Women and the U.S. Pension Bureaucracy\nThis talk will explore how southern black women artfully navigated the U.S. pension bureaucracy to gain recognition as Union widows. Based on her extensive research of black soldiers’ wives and widows at the National Archives\, Dr. Brandi Brimmer will reconstruct the pension application process and evidentiary obstacles newly freed black women faced in their attempt to claim and maintain their position on the pension roster. Over the course of the presentation\, she will demonstrate how these women utilized the U.S. pension bureaucracy to air their grievances and remake widowhood on their own terms. \nBrandi C. Brimmer is a historian of African Americans in the United States with a particular interest in women/gender\, racial formation\, and sexuality in late-nineteenth-century America. Her book-in-progress analyzes black women’s relationship to the U.S. legal system and to federal institutions in post-Civil War America.  Brimmer’s articles have appeared in the Journal of the Civil War Era and the Journal of Southern History.  She is an assistant professor in the Department of History and Geography at Morgan State University.  Her talk this afternoon will explore the life\, labors\, and travails of black women who had to artfully negotiate the U.S. pension bureaucracy to gain legal recognition as a Union widow. \nPre-register Now
URL:https://clarabartonmuseum.org/event/weeping-no-more/
LOCATION:Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum\, 437 7th Street NW\, Washington\, 20004\, United States
CATEGORIES:After the War,Free
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Pension-Office.png
ORGANIZER;CN="Amelia Grabowski":MAILTO:amelia.grabowski@civilwarmed.org
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20170309T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20170309T190000
DTSTAMP:20260428T095011
CREATED:20161122T151941Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20170717T145123Z
UID:1081-1489082400-1489086000@clarabartonmuseum.org
SUMMARY:The Widow Maker: How the Pension Office Forced Women to Fight for Survival After the Civil War
DESCRIPTION:After the Civil War\, thousands of women were left to care for their wounded warriors. These women walked a tightrope between independent decision-making and technical dependence on their invalid male relative. Dr. Ashley Bowen shares the story of one such family and the matriarch’s fight for survival\, independence\, and justice. \nThis is part of our “After the War” series. Once a month\, speakers will explore how citizens fought to rebuild  their lives after the Civil War. \n\nWhen soldiers went marching home\, there was no support system in place to care for their physical or psychological wounds. Instead\, the Pension Office provided varying amounts of financial support to each soldier\, and expected the women of the house to handle everything else. \nThe wives of Civil War soldiers were responsible for the “women’s work” of nursing their veterans—shaving their veterans\, helping them eat\, and bathing them—while also taking on many of the responsibilities that defined a nineteenth century father and husband\, including manual labor\, financial decision making\, and farm management. \nWhen their husbands died\, many of these women were told they would not receive their widow’s pension. According to the War Department\, by caring for their husbands\, the women had proven themselves too independent to need financial assistance. \nThis talk will focus around one of these women: Virginia Bedor. Her husband\, Peter Bedor\, fought as private in the 1st Connecticut Heavy Artillery\, was arrested for mutiny\, fought at Gettysburg\, witnessed the fall of Petersburg\, and had been treated for acute mania at the Government Hospital for the Insane. Over the course of their nearly forty-year marriage\, Virginia raised nine children; nursed  her now ill\, violent\, and temperamental husband; became Peter’s legal guardian; negotiated her husband’s care in jails and asylums; stewarded a Kansas farm to a degree of profitability; and navigated a complicated bureaucratic system to obtain a pension for her husband. When she applied for a widow’s pension after Peter’s death in 1904\, the Pension Office refused her request on the grounds that her success as a guardian\, farmer\, and manager rendered her no longer dependent. \nThe Bedor’s story\, like all family stories\, is unique but by no means exceptional. Their correspondence with the Pension Office reveals how late nineteenth century American women negotiated gender relations inside and outside the home\, the expansion of asylums and soldier’s homes\, and shifting government narratives of the ‘deserving poor.’ \nBowen’s research into the Bedor family provides a window into the shifting gender and social service landscape of post-Civil War America. Virginia Bedor’s fight with the pension office makes clear the ways in which the United States federal government’s policies demanded that women present themselves as dependent\, deserving widows and incapable of providing for themselves without the aid of a husband or father—regardless of her own success as a caregiver\, farmer\, and business woman. \nPre-Register Now
URL:https://clarabartonmuseum.org/event/widow2/
LOCATION:Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum\, 437 7th Street NW\, Washington\, 20004\, United States
CATEGORIES:After the War
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Bedor_PensionCover.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="Amelia Grabowski":MAILTO:amelia.grabowski@civilwarmed.org
END:VEVENT
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