Clara Barton Museum

The Widow Maker: How the Pension Office Forced Women to Fight for Survival After the Civil War
2017-03-09 18:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum, 437 7th Street NW, Washington, 20004, United States
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.
This 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.

When 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.
The 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.
When 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.
This 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.
The 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.’
Bowen’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.
Pre-Register Now

CANCELLED: Oh Freedom!
2017-02-25 16:00 - 17:30 | Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum, 437 7th Street NW, Washington, 20004, United States
CANCELLED
I woke up this morning with my mind set on Freedom …
Ain’t gonna let nobody turn me round …
We shall overcome, we shall overcome someday …
The songs of the Civil Rights movement sustained foot soldiers through long nights in prison and tense marches and sit ins. The music acted as a “singing newspaper”–carrying news of the movement across the country, from college campuses to community churches. Today, the music of the movement continues to echo in our ears, teaching us about the past while driving us forward.
Award winning Illinois folksinger, Chris Vallillo will sing and share the pivotal songs that inspired and sustained this landmark movement. Discover the historic and singing roots of the long Civil Rights movement.

Episode 2: Mercy Street Viewing Party
2017-02-02 18:00 - 19:15 | Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum, 437 7th Street NW, Washington, 20004, United States
The drama continues! The PBS hit series, Mercy Street‘s second season is packed with more drama, more medicine, and more history. Join the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office staff to watch and discuss the latest episode. Discover the history behind the historical drama.
In the second episode, “The House Guest,” Mary tries to conceal her illness while Alice schemes. The episode will premiere on Sunday January 29th at 8:00 pm on PBS.

The second season of Mercy Street premieres on Sunday January 22.

Season Premiere: Mercy Street Viewing Party
2017-01-26 18:00 - 19:15 | Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum, 437 7th Street NW, Washington, 20004, United States
It’s back. The PBS hit series, Mercy Street, returns for a second season with more drama, more medicine, and more history to unpack. Join the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum staff to watch and discuss the latest episode. Discover the history behind the historical drama.
The first episode opens in the wake of Lincoln’s visit as the hospital staff tries to save one of their own. The episode will premiere on Sunday January 22nd at 8:00 pm on PBS.

Concerts at Clara's: Bellwether Bayou with Slim Rosa
2016-11-18 19:00 - 21:00 | Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum, 437 7th Street NW, Washington, 20004, United States
Continuing the Concert at Clara’s series, the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum is thrilled to welcome Bellwether Bayou and Slim Rosa.
Bellwether Bayou is the solo folk project of Laura Schwartz, a classically trained violinist who has been moving steadily in a more folksy direction since living in New Orleans, Ithaca, and Xi’an, China. Based in Washington, D.C., Bellwether Bayou brings looping violin and soulful vocals together to create a modern take on classic folk sensibilities. The sound of Bellwether Bayou mixes original tunes with unexpected covers and new spins on old traditionals. Schwartz has previously performed at the Museum as part of the Clara Barton Sessions.
Slim Rosa is a side project collaboration of the founding members of The Iris Bell, Matthew Hunt and Laura Hinson. For this new project, Matthew and Laura wanted to explore a more plaintive side to their songwriting. Slim Rosa blends acoustic guitars and analog organs with vocal harmonies, evoking the duo’s connection to their Tennessee/North Carolina/Georgia roots.
This performance is part of a yearlong series: Concerts at Clara’s. Throughout the year, different local musicians will perform in the historic rooms of the Missing Soldiers Office. Throughout history, music has helped bring people together, it has been a way to share stories and to find common ground. The Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office is proud to continue this tradition with Concerts at Clara’s.
Doors open at 7:00 pm, Concert begins at 7:30 pm.
SOLD OUT
This event is sold out. To be added to the waiting list, please e-mail amelia.grabowski@civilwarmed.org.
Tours of the Museum will not be given during the concert.

Fighting for Education
2016-11-15 17:15 - 18:15 | Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum, 437 7th Street NW, Washington, 20004, United States
THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED
Clara Barton believed everyone should be able to get an education: male or female, black or white, rich or poor. Over 150 years later, the fight to ensure all children have access to a decent education is far from over.
Teaching for Change is one organization that continues to fight for social justice in education. Teaching for Change, along with the staff of the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum, will discuss how Clara Barton worked to ensure greater educational access for all, and how others are fighting the good fight today.
This program is perfect for those passionate about innovation in education, social justice, those curious about Clara Barton’s life, and educators of every variety.
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Cut It Off! An Amputation and Demonstration
2016-10-29 16:00 - 18:00 | Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum, 437 7th Street NW, Washington, 20004, United States
Join Atlas Obscura as they get into the Halloween spirit and turn the Missing Soldiers Office into an impromptu operating theater.
Watch a Civil War medical historian amputate a gel leg using authentic 19th-century tools and techniques. The leg, made from a forensic gel and simulated bone, looks, feels, and even sounds (!) remarkably like the real thing.
Get Your Tickets Now

Clara Barton: Beyond the Battlefield
2016-10-22 14:00 - 15:30 | Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum, 437 7th Street NW, Washington, 20004, United States
The Mid Maryland Performing Arts Center’s Dance FX student repertory company invites you to an evening of compelling, original dance inspired by Clara Barton’s service, sacrifice, and contributions to American history.
Choreographer, Kelsy Rupp, was inspired to create a site-specific dance honoring Clara Barton and her contributions. “I visited the site and you could feel Clara Barton’s presence in the rooms,” noted the choreographer, “Knowing how much was accomplished within that space is overwhelming. So much of what she dealt with–personally and as a humanitarian–mirror many of the issues our country is facing today.”
Mid Maryland Performing Arts Center’s Dance FX is a dance company based in Frederick, MD. The company consists of young, advanced dancers, who explore a variety of dance styles. The Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum is thrilled to welcome these young performers as they interpret the history of the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office through dance.
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Concerts at Clara's: Ballad've
2016-09-23 19:00 - 21:00 | Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum, 437 7th Street NW, Washington, 20004, United States
Continuing the Concert at Clara’s series, the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum is thrilled to welcome Ballad’ve. This DC-based folk fusion trio will fill the historic rooms with song in this special performance.
Ballad’ve draws its musical influences from the shape-note singing tradition, early blues, old-time, and such modern popular artists as Gillian Welch, Anais Mitchell, and Elliott Smith. Their music intertwines close vocal harmonies with finger-style guitar (provided by veteran songwriter Margaret Wasaff), blues banjo (provided by multi-instrumentalist and musicologist Anders Fahey), and a range of rhythmic stylings from a literal suitcase full of percussion instruments including the suitcase itself (provided by classically trained percussionist Manny Arciniega). Ballad’ve has previously performed at the Museum as part of the Clara Barton Sessions.
Ballad’ve’s performance is part of the Concerts at Clara’s series. Throughout the year, different local musicians will perform in the historic rooms of the Missing Soldiers Office. Throughout history, music has helped bring people together, it has been a way to share stories and to find common ground. The Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office is proud to continue this tradition with Concerts at Clara’s.
Doors open at 7:00 pm, Concert begins at 7:30 pm.
Get Your Tickets Now
Tours of the Museum will not be given during the concert.

Cancelled: Evergreen Shade
2016-06-24 19:00 - 20:00 | Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum, 437 7th Street NW, Washington, 20004, United States
This event has been cancelled. Please join us for the next Concert at Clara’s with Bellwether Bayou and Slim Rosa.

Extended Hours
2016-05-29 12:00 - 17:00 | Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum, 437 7th Street NW, Washington, 20004, United States
Join us to remember those who gave the ultimate sacrifice, and those that worked to help their families.
Saturday May 28th: Noon to 7:00 pm
Sunday May 29th: Noon to 5:00 pm
Monday May 30th, Memorial Day: Closed
Please note, the last admission will be an hour before closing.

A Conversation with Cokie Roberts
2016-05-14 14:00 - 15:00 | Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum, 437 7th Street NW, Washington, 20004, United States
Cokie Roberts, political commentator for ABC News and National Public Radio, and the author of Capital Dames: The Civil War and the Women of Washington, 1848-1868, will explore the incredible story of women in the Union capital before, during, and after the American Civil War.
In a time of great upheaval, she writes of the opportunities and risks that women in Washington experienced during that tumultuous era.
The presentation will take place within the rooms Clara Barton operated her Civil War battlefield operations and later her Missing Soldiers Office. As Roberts stated about Clara Barton at the July 28, 2015 dedication ceremony of the museum, “This tiny little woman played such an enormous difference in the country and the world, and continues to make a difference today.”
Cokie Roberts is a political commentator for ABC News and National Public Radio. In her more than forty years in broadcasting, she has won countless awards, including three Emmys. She has been inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame, and was cited by the American Women in Radio and Television as one of the fifty greatest women in the history of broadcasting. Besides Capital Dames, Roberts’ histories of women include Founding Mothers: Remembering the Ladies and Ladies of Liberty: The Women Who Shaped Our Nation. In 2008, the Library of Congress named Cokie Roberts a “Living Legend,” making her one of the very few Americans to have attained that honor.
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Washington DC's Working Girls
2016-05-07 16:00 - 18:00 | Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum, 437 7th Street NW, Washington, 20004, United States
Join Atlas Obscura and the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum for an afternoon with Washington, DC’s nineteenth century “working girls.”
While we explore the Missing Soldiers Office, we’ll learn about the many women who made Washington, DC work. Museum staff will share stories about exceptional women like Clara Barton, who worked first as a clerk in the United States Patent Office and then as a tireless humanitarian. We’ll also hear about women who went to work in the offices of U.S. government agencies and the many unnamed women who worked as prostitutes in Washington, DC. Museum staff will show us a selection of artifacts and prints relating to women’s work, including nineteenth century office supplies, historic condoms, and STI treatments.
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Discovering Clara Barton's Missing Soldiers Office
2016-04-30 16:30 - 18:00 | Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum, 437 7th Street NW, Washington, 20004, United States
In the 1990s, Richard Lyons, an employee with the U.S. General Services Administration, made a surprising discovery. While inspecting the building at 437 7th Street, NW for demolition, he found a collection of 19th century items tucked away in an attic crawl space on the third floor. Mr. Lyons subsequently realized that the building previously held Clara Barton’s Office of Correspondence with the Friends of the Missing Men of the United States Army, or commonly known as, the Missing Soldiers Office.
Please join the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum in welcoming Richard Lyons for a special discussion of his experiences while inspecting the building, his role in preserving the site, and the steps involved in bringing Clara Barton’s Missing Soldiers Office from the brink of demolition to the newest museum in Washington, DC.
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Restoring Clara Barton’s Missing Soldiers Office
2016-04-20 18:00 - 19:00 | Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum, 437 7th Street NW, Washington, 20004, United States
In 1997, a U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) employee readying a property for sale and demolition made a surprising discovery. Civil War era belongings, battlefield supplies and painted signs revealed the location of Clara Barton’s long forgotten Missing Soldiers Office. Through a series of precedent-setting partnerships, the redevelopment came to fruition while the Missing Soldiers Office was restored as a museum, making the continuing discovery of the spaces as Clara Barton knew them an integral part of the visitor experience.
Join Caroline Alderson and Elizabeth Hannold of GSA’s national preservation program for a behind-the-scenes journey through the discovery, investigation, restoration and interpretation of the 150 year-old boarding house where Barton lived and worked. See how original components and fragments were integrated into replicated Civil War era gaslighting, building systems and wall coverings found in the third floor rooms. Probe clues to unsolved mysteries –hidden openings, graffiti notations, shifted passageways—peering into view portals and exposure “windows” for a compelling glimpse into Clara Barton’s Civil War refuge.

Obscura Day: Cut It Off
2016-04-16 13:30 - 15:00 | Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum, 437 7th Street NW, Washington, 20004, United States
SOLD OUT
Join the Obscura Society as they turn the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers’ Office into an impromptu operating theater!
Watch a Civil War medical historian from the National Museum of Civil War Medicine amputate a gel leg using authentic 19th century tools and techniques. The leg, made from forensic gel and simulated bone, looks, feels, and even sounds (!) remarkably like the real thing.
Curators will also bring some bone saws, mine balls, medical kits and other objects related to the history of amputation for us to look at. Museum staff will be on hand to answer your questions about surgery in the pre-antiseptic, pre-antibiotic era.
SOLD OUT

Concerts at Clara's: Kate Saylor and Garrett Wren
2016-04-15 19:00 - 21:00 | Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum, 437 7th Street NW, Washington, 20004, United States
Continuing the Concert at Clara’s series, the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum is thrilled to welcome Kate Saylor and Garrett Wren, members of the Newgrass band Notes from the Underground.
Newgrass, sometimes referred to Progressive Bluegrass, is a relatively new genre. It incorporates elements of jazz, celtic, rock, and even classical music into original compositions. Newgrass is more about pushing the limits of bluegrass instrumentation than anything else.
California native Kate Saylor grew up going to fiddle camps and jams, and is influenced by time spent with Darol Anger, Bruce Molsky, Natalie MacMaster. Kate was a founding member of the DC-based Delafield String Band, and currently plays with Garrett in the Newgrass group Notes From the Underground.Saylor has previously performed at the Museum as part of the Clara Barton Sessions.
Garrett Wren started playing mandolin at the age of 13 after hearing Chris Thile for the first time. He took jazz lessons throughout his youth and played for a variety of bands, including national touring act Whiskey Gentry.
This performance is part of the Concerts at Clara’s series. Throughout the year, different local musicians will perform in the historic rooms of the Missing Soldiers Office. Throughout history, music has helped bring people together, it has been a way to share stories and to find common ground. The Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office is proud to continue this tradition with Concerts at Clara’s.
Doors open at 7:00 pm, Concert begins at 7:30 pm.
GET YOUR TICKETS NOW
Tours of the Museum will not be given during the concert.

The Widow Maker: How the Pension Office Forced Women to Fight for Survival After the Civil War
2016-03-31 18:00 - 19:00 | Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum, 437 7th Street NW, Washington, 20004, United States
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. Ashley Bowen shares the story of one such family and the matriarch’s fight for survival, independence, and justice.

When 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.
The 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.
When 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.
This 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.
The 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.’
Bowen’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.

Concerts at Clara's: Jason Mendelson's MetroSongs
2016-03-11 19:00 - 21:00
Bringing together the unlikely combination of music, history, and public transit, Jason Mendelson’s “MetroSongs” is one of the most unique musical projects you’ll encounter in Washington, DC today.
Mendelson and a small ensemble of musicians will fill the Missing Soldiers Office with live music in a special performance of “MetroSongs.” Historian Mark Ozer, author of Washington Metroland, will accompany the musicians, providing historical context about the Metro system.
Mendelson’s performance is part of a yearlong series: Concerts at Clara’s. Throughout the year, different local musicians will perform in the historic rooms of the Missing Soldiers Office. Throughout history, music has helped bring people together, it has been a way to share stories and to find common ground. The Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office is proud to continue this tradition with Concerts at Clara’s.
Doors open at 7:00 pm, Concert begins at 7:30 pm.
SOLD OUT
Tours of the Museum will not be given during the concert. However, present your concert ticket and take the 6:00 pm tour on the day of the concert, free of charge.
Tickets sold for the 1/22 performance are valid for the 3/11 performance.

In Frederick: Clara Barton and Her "Callers"
2016-03-05 14:30 - 17:00 | National Museum of Civil War Medicine, 48 East Patrick Street, Washington, DC, 20004
Clara Barton accomplished so much, but she didn’t do it alone.
Join us at the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office to discover the men and women who helped Clara with her work. From saintly stories of volunteerism to salacious rumors, uncover the intimate history of Clara Barton and her many callers.
Included in Museum Admission
Members Free

Concerts at Clara's: Adam Narimatsu
2016-02-19 19:00 - 21:00 | Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum, 437 7th Street NW, Washington, 20004, United States
Narimatsu combines jazz, classical, and contemporary music with unwavering energy and passion for an electric performance. His performance in the Missing Soldiers Office promises to include some of your favorite songs … and the stories behind them.
Narimatsu’s performance is part of the Concerts at Clara’s series. Throughout the year, different local musicians will perform in the historic rooms of the Missing Soldiers Office. Throughout history, music has helped bring people together, it has been a way to share stories and to find common ground. The Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office is proud to continue this tradition with Concerts at Clara’s.
Doors open at 7:00 pm, Concert begins at 7:30 pm.
Get Your Tickets Now
Tours of the Museum will not be given during the concert. However, present your concert ticket and take the 6:00 pm tour on the day of the concert, free of charge.

Clara Barton and Her "Callers"
2016-02-13 17:00 - 18:30
Clara Barton accomplished so much, but she didn’t do it alone.
Join us at the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office to discover the men and women who helped Clara with her work. From saintly stories of volunteerism to salacious rumors, uncover the intimate history of Clara Barton and her many callers.

GET Your Ticket Now
