10 Years of the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum
2025-07-26 | Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum, 437 7th Street NW, Washington, 20004, United States
Join us on Saturday, July 26 as we celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum opening!
We will be celebrating our 10th birthday with free admission, guided tours from Clara Barton’s perspective, and a very special lecture from Clara Barton interpreter and historian Carolyn Ivanoff on the Missing Soldiers Office.
11AM – Doors open
12PM – Tour the Missing Soldiers Office with Clara Barton Reservations
1PM – Clara Barton’s Washington Walking Tour Get Tickets
2PM – Clara Barton’s Civil War and the Creation of the Missing Soldiers Office Details
3PM – Tour the Missing Soldiers Office with Clara Barton Reservations
5PM – Doors close

Walking Tour: Clara Barton’s Washington
2025-07-26 13:00 - 14:00, 2025-08-02 13:00 - 14:00, 2025-08-09 13:00 - 14:00, 2025-08-16 13:00 - 14:00, 2025-08-30 13:00 - 14:00, 2025-09-13 13:00 - 14:00, 2025-09-20 13:00 - 14:00, 2025-09-27 13:00 - 14:00 (America/New_York) | Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum, 437 7th Street NW, Washington, 20004, United States
Join us as we step back into Civil War Washington, DC through the eyes of Clara Barton.
On Saturdays at 1PM, Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum docents will guide guests through the neighborhood that Clara Barton lived in during the Civil War. Beginning at 437 7th Street NW, the boarding house where Barton resided, this tour will explore the rapid changes to Washington, DC that occurred throughout the 1860s as a result of the Civil War while also providing a look into what the daily lives of Washington locals looked like then. Walking tours will last approximately one hour.
Tours will depart at 1PM from 437 7th St NW, Washington, DC. Walking tours cost $15 and include free admission to the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum. Tickets are free for Museum Members but must still be reserved. Reservations are accepted on a first come first serve basis. Please see the link below to get your tickets today!
Get Tickets

Clara Barton's Civil War and the Creation of the Missing Soldiers Office
2025-07-26 14:00 - 15:00 | Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum, 437 7th Street NW, Washington, 20004, United States
Please join us Saturday, July 26 in celebrating the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office’s 10th birthday!
Author, historian, and first-person Clara Barton interpreter Carolyn Ivanoff will be presenting a special lecture detailing Clara Barton’s work throughout the Civil War and her development of the Missing Soldiers Office.
Miss Clara Barton was known as the Angel of the Battlefield for her service as a nurse and relief worker during the Civil War. In March of 1865, with written permission from President Lincoln, Barton established the Missing Soldiers Office in her boarding house on 7th Street in Washington, D.C. As the Civil War was coming to a close, over 40 percent of the dead remained unidentified. Tens of thousands of grieving families did not know the fate of their loved ones. From the time she first went onto the battlefield Barton was acutely aware, and deeply concerned, for the fate of the men whom she cared for and their families. With the opening of the Missing Soldiers’ Office, Barton dedicated herself to the search for the missing and the identification of the dead. By time the office closed in 1868, Barton had worked herself into exhaustion. More than 22,000 unknown dead had been identified, 13,000 at Andersonville alone.

Last Seen: Searching for Missing Loved Ones after the Civil War
2025-08-16 14:00 - 15:30 | Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum, 437 7th Street NW, Washington, 20004, United States
Last Seen: Searching for Missing Loved Ones after the Civil War – Professor Judith Giesberg
In 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.

CLOSED
2025-08-23 | Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum, 437 7th Street NW, Washington, 20004, United States
We will be closed Saturday, August 23, 2025 for maintenance. We will reopen Thursday, August 28, 2025 at 11AM.

Canceled - Walking Tour: Clara Barton’s Washington
2025-09-06 13:00 - 14:00 | Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum, 437 7th Street NW, Washington, 20004, United States

Healing and Teaching: Susie King Taylor's Life in Service
2025-09-20 14:00 - 15:00 | Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum, 437 7th Street NW, Washington, 20004, United States
Healing and Teaching: Susie King Taylor’s Life in Service – Dr. Dawn Chitty
Join us Saturday, September 20 at 2PM as Dr. Dawn Chitty, Director of Education at the African American Civil War Museum, explores the extraordinary life of Susie King Taylor. Taylor, a formerly enslaved woman, served as a nurse, teacher, and memoirist during the Civil War. As one of the few women to document her wartime experiences, Taylor offers a rare firsthand account of life alongside the United States Colored Troops. This presentation at the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Museum highlights her courage, intellect, and enduring contributions to American history.

Spiritualism at Surratt: A Descent into the Macabre Archives
2025-10-18 14:00 - 15:00 | Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum, 437 7th Street NW, Washington, 20004, United States
The Civil War made death far more common and only deepened people’s longing for a connection with the spirit world. The archives and collections at the Surratt House Museum Research Center are full of references to these macabre practices and chilling recorded ghost stories. This talk will focus on the efforts collections staff have made to catalog, rehouse, and make finding aids for the spiritualism collection while sharing the stories of these spine chilling artifacts. At the talk you will be able to try out one of our educational activities inspired by the collection, but to do all of the spooky hands on activities, tour the house at night, and see the artifacts discussed in person consider attending the longer program at the Surratt House Museum on October 4th and 25th: https://www.pgparks.com/event_list/spiritualism-at-surratt
About the Speaker
Lex (Alexa) Rose (She/They)
is the Archivist and Collections Assistant at the Surratt House Museum. Previously, she has given ghost and spiritualism tours, which satisfies her spooky heart as a practicing witch. She has worn many hats in museums including: curator, exhibits professional, collections, and research assistant at a variety of museums in the DC area currently and up and down both coasts in the past. She is most interested in researching spooky topics, women, LGBTQ+, digital humanities, disability history, and having an MA in Ancient Greek and Roman Studies, tries to relate American History to Rome (because her “Roman Empire” is actually the Roman empire)! She invites you to see her work, ask questions, and connect on LinkedIn.

CLOSED
2025-11-08 08:00 - 17:00
The Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum will be closed Thursday, December 25. We will reopen the following day on Friday, December 26, 2025.

How Civil War Medicine Killed President James Garfield
2025-11-08 14:00 - 15:00 | Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum, 437 7th Street NW, Washington, 20004, United States
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.

Jake 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.

The presentation is included with admission to the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum and FREE for NMCWM members.

“All the Elements of Sublimity and Terror”: Veterans and the Psychological Impact of War
2025-11-15 14:00 - 15:30 | Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum, 437 7th Street NW, Washington, 20004, United States
“All the Elements of Sublimity and Terror”: Veterans and the Psychological Impact of War – Stephen A. Goldman, M.D., LFACLP, DLFAPA
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.
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.
About the Speaker
Stephen 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.

CLOSED
2025-11-27 - 2025-11-29 | Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum, 437 7th Street NW, Washington, 20004, United States
The Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum will be closed Thursday, November 27 – Saturday, November 29. We will reopen the following week on Thursday, December 3, 2025.

CLOSED
2025-12-25 - 2026-01-01 | Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum, 437 7th Street NW, Washington, 20004, United States
The Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum will be closed Thursday, December 25 – Thursday, January 1. We will reopen on Friday, January 2, 2026.

Dr. Alexander Augusta: The U.S. Army’s First Black Surgeon
2026-02-28 14:00 - 15:00 | Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum, 437 7th Street NW, Washington, 20004, United States
Learn the incredible story of the highest-ranking African American in the Civil War!
Join us at the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office on February 28 at 2:00 PM as historian and re-enactor Dr. Michael A. Hill presents the story of Brevet Lt. Col. Alexander T. Augusta, M.D.: the first African American to be commissioned as a regimental surgeon with the rank of Major during the Civil War. The story of Dr. Augusta is a fascinating account of a man overcoming incredible odds to become a physician, businessman, and Civil Rights icon.

Michael A. Hill, M.D. graduated from George Washington University Medical School and retired from his internal medicine practice in 2019. He has been a Civil War re-enactor since 1989, giving lectures on Civil War medicine during living histories and at schools. He participated in the filming of the movies Glory and Sommersby.
The presentation is included with admission to the museum and FREE for members.

Brown Bag Lunch Speaker Series: Women Who Fought in the Civil War
2026-03-20 12:00 - 12:30 | Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum, 437 7th Street NW, Washington, 20004, United States
Please bring your lunch and enjoy a 30 minute lecture at the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum!
Disguised and Determined: Women Who Fought in the Civil War
There are hundreds of documented cases of women who fought disguised as men during the Civil War. Tracey McIntire and Audrey Scanlan-Teller, PhD will discuss and share documentation of some of the more fascinating women and what motivated them to fight alongside men.
Tracey McIntire earned her BA in English at Rivier College in Nashua, New Hampshire. She is Lead Educator at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine, site administrator at the Pry House Field Hospital Museum and an interpretive volunteer at Antietam National Battlefield. Since 2008, she has portrayed a woman soldier at living history events.
Audrey Scanlan-Teller earned her MA and PhD in art history at the University of Delaware. Since 2005, she has portrayed a Civil War enlisted soldier for historical interpretive demonstrations, a portrayal that compelled her to study the women soldiers of the Civil War. Dr. Scanlan-Teller is an active interpretive volunteer at Antietam National Battlefield Park and a small business owner.
Reservations are required and may be made here. Admission to the Museum is included in ticket price.

Women of the Civil War Walking Tour at Congressional Cemetery
2026-03-22 13:00 - 14:30 | Congressional Cemetery, 1801 E St SE, Washington, DC, 20003, United States
Women’s contributions during the American Civil War were substantial. Thousands on both sides served as nurses, while others manufactured ammunition. Some even took up arms in the battle between North and South.

Historic Congressional Cemetery is the final resting place of numerous women who had active roles in the deadliest American war. This Women’s History Month, Congressional is partnering with the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum to highlight some of these interred residents. This jointly-operated walking tour will be held at Congressional Cemetery on Sunday, March 22nd at 1PM.

Tickets are only $10 and all proceeds benefit both non-profits.
Space is limited so be sure to reserve your spot today!

Further Tour Information

Visitors may meet docents at the front gate of the cemetery located at the corner of E St. and Potomac Ave.
Please come prepared with comfortable clothing and shoes, as the tours often stray from the main paths.
The event is rain or shine. Smoking is prohibited and dogs are not allowed to attend the event unless they are a service animal.

Walking Tour: Clara Barton’s Washington, D.C.
2026-04-11 13:00 - 14:00, 2026-04-25 13:00 - 14:00, 2026-05-09 13:00 - 14:00 | Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum, 437 7th Street NW, Washington, 20004, United States
Join us as we step back into Civil War Washington, D.C. through the eyes of Clara Barton.
On Saturdays at 1 p.m., Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum docents will guide guests through the neighborhood that Clara Barton lived in during the Civil War. Beginning at 437 7th Street NW, the boarding house where Barton resided, this tour will explore the rapid changes to Washington, DC that occurred throughout the 1860s as a result of the Civil War while also providing a look into what the daily lives of Washington locals looked like then. Walking tours will last approximately one hour.
Tours will depart at 1 p.m. from 437 7th St NW, Washington, DC. Walking tours cost $15 and include free admission to the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum. Tickets are free for Museum Members but must still be reserved. Reservations are accepted on a first come first serve basis.
GENERAL PUBLIC TICKETS
MEMBER TICKETS

Brown Bag Lunch Speaker Series: Dr. Charles Leale and the Medical Treatment of Abraham Lincoln
2026-04-17 12:00 - 12:30 | Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum, 437 7th Street NW, Washington, 20004, United States
Please bring your lunch and enjoy a 30 minute lecture at the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum!

Dr. Charles Leale and the Medical Treatment of Abraham Lincoln

Surgeon 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.”

The 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.

Reservations are required and may be made here. Admission to the Museum is included in ticket price.

Midnight on the Potomac: The Last Year of the Civil War, the Lincoln Assassination, and the Rebirth of America
2026-04-25 14:00 - 15:00 | Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum, 437 7th Street NW, Washington, 20004, United States
Join us Saturday, April 25, 2026 at 2PM for a book talk on Midnight on the Potomac: The Last Year of the Civil War, the Lincoln Assassination, and the Rebirth of America by Scott Ellsworth.
By the late summer of 1864, the outcome of the Civil War was far from certain. Virginia had turned into a vast killing field, a peace movement was on the rise in the North, and even Lincoln himself was convinced that he would not be re-elected. But necessity is the mother of invention, and the Confederate high command would launch an unprecedented attempt to reverse their declining success on the battlefield, one that would ultimately involve John Wilkes Booth. Based on extensive contemporary accounts and long-ignored scholarship, Scott Ellsworth brings a fresh perspective the last, fraught months of the nation’s costliest war.
Described by one reviewer as “a historian with the soul of a poet,” Scott Ellsworth is the New York Times bestselling author of The Secret Game, winner of the 2016 PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing, and The Ground Breaking, his critically acclaimed account of the Tulsa race massacre. Formerly a historian at the Smithsonian Institution, he has written about American history for The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times. He lives in Ann Arbor, where he also teaches at the University of Michigan. His most recent book, Midnight on the Potomac, published in 2025.
This presentation is included with admission to the museum and FREE for members.

Lincoln in New England: In Search of His Forgotten Tours
2026-05-09 14:00 - 15:00 | Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum, 437 7th Street NW, Washington, 20004, United States
David J. Kent will discuss his most recent book, Lincoln in New England: In Search of His Forgotten Tours. Lincoln in New England revisits the important towns where Lincoln spoke and the pivotal figures that helped define the great issues leading to the Civil War. Readers join native New Englander and Lincoln historian David J. Kent as he travels back in time to examine the nation’s downward spiral into conflict. Much of the travel was in Kent’s home state of Massachusetts, where Clara Barton was born and lived until she was nearly 30 years old.
Readers will explore the crucial issues that led to the civil war, the birth of the Republican Party as an anti-slavery faction, and New England’s own short-lived flirtation with secession in the spirit of independence. Through the book’s first-person travelogue style, historical maps with redrawn routes, original writings from Lincoln himself, insight from Lincoln historians, and black and white photographs, readers gain a full picture of the region’s vital influence leading up to the Civil War.
The book has received advance praise from preeminent Lincoln scholars such as Harold Holzer, Michael Burlingame, and Jason Emerson, as well as New England experts such as Hildene’s Brian Keefe, biographer William F. Hanna, and Civil War expert John Rodrigue. Carolyn Ivanoff, a Clara Barton reenactor, appears in the book.
David J. Kent is an Abraham Lincoln historian, former scientist, avid world traveler, and author of nine books, the most recent being Lincoln in New England: In Search of His Forgotten Tours. He is the Immediate Past President and current Historian of the Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia, on the Executive Committee and Board of Directors of the Abraham Lincoln Institute, and a member of the Board of Advisors of the Lincoln Forum. He is a frequent speaker on Abraham Lincoln topics and served as Master of Ceremonies for the Lincoln Memorial Centennial program in 2022. David has won numerous awards both for his scientific work and as an Abraham Lincoln historian, including the Wendy Allen Award from the Lincoln Forum for the Lincoln Group of DC, the SETAC Outstanding Regional Chapter Member Award, the CPRC Distinguished Service Award, and the Biology Major Award from the University of Bridgeport. He has written several books, including Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America, Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, both of which were finalists for several book awards, and Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity, a worldwide bestseller translated into many languages.
This presentation is included with admission to the museum and FREE for members.

The Civil War Round Table of the District of Columbia Presents: Rowser's Ford: Where the South Lost Gettysburg
2026-05-13 17:30 - 20:00 | Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum, 437 7th Street NW, Washington, 20004, United States
“Rowser’s Ford: Where the South Lost Gettysburg” presentation by Jim Johnson

About the Topic:

Robert E. Lee could not believe it. As he led his army out of the Cashtown gap, there were Yankees in force in front of him at Gettysburg. How could this be? He had specifically ordered cavalry commander J.E.B. Stuart to keep him informed of the Federals’ movements, but the last time Lee heard from Stuart was a week earlier on June 23.
Lee had ordered Stuart to get to the head of General Ewell’s column at Frederick, Maryland, as soon as possible but allowed him to choose the route. The Confederate commander intended to avoid a major battle in Pennsylvania and, hearing nothing from Stuart, felt safe to rest his army in Chambersburg until June 28. But learning the Federals had crossed the Potomac and were in Maryland, he immediately ordered his army, which was dispersed as far north as Carlisle and as far east as York, to concentrate at Gettysburg.
Stuart’s flamboyant “rides” around Union armies had earned him a fan club and the second star of a major general. He interpreted Lee’s order to permit another such ride. But first, he had to cross the Potomac River, and for this, he chose a ford too far. What he called “Rowsers Ford” was 22-miles upriver from Georgetown. As a result, Lee didn’t see or hear from his “eyes and ears” until late on the second day of the battle.
Stuart wrote such a self-aggrandizing after-action report that the historical markers of where he crossed the Potomac are miles away from where he actually crossed and historians have tended to consider his role in the Battle of Gettysburg quite differently from how the Confederate high command did.
About The Speaker:
Jim Johnston is a retired lawyer and a prolific writer with four books, including one on a woman in the Civil War, and more than 150 articles in major publications including the New York Times, Washington Post, White House History, and, importantly for this presentation, Gettysburg Magazine.
Reservations may be made here!
Cost: $10 for members of the Civil War Round Table of the District of Columbia and members of the National Museum of Civil War Medicine, $15 non-members, and free for zoom attendees
If you have any problems making reservations online or would like to know about alternatives to making reservations or payments online, please email admin@cwrtdc.org. Non-CWRTDC members must make reservations and remit payment online.
Unfortunately, cancellations after the due date are non-refundable, as the CWRTDC must pay for the number of dinners ordered regardless of the actual attendance).
Schedule for In-Person Attendees:
5:30 pm ET: Social Period in lobby with light refreshments
6:10 pm ET: Move Upstairs to 3rd Floor (elevator available)
6:30 pm ET: Meeting Starts (Announcements, Speaker Presentation, Q&A)
8:00/8:15 pm ET: Meeting concludes

Schedule for Zoom Attendees:
6:00 pm ET: Social Period (optional)
6:30 pm ET: Meeting Starts (Announcements, Speaker Presentation, Q&A)
8:00/8:15 pm ET: Meeting concludes
Any questions or problems, contact paul.mazzuca@gmail.com
Zoom Meeting URL:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83412709960?pwd=[REDACTED]
Or point your browser to the following link and use the Meeting ID and passcode shown below:
Zoom “Join A Meeting” Page: https://zoom.us/join
Zoom Meeting ID: 834 1270 9960
Zoom Passcode: [REDACTED]
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+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
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Phone Meeting ID: 834 1270 9960
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Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kdSroe6qvY
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