Clara Barton Museum

The Widow Maker: How the Pension Office Forced Women to Fight for Survival After the Civil War
2016-03-31 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. 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
