Clara Barton Museum

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, 2026-05-23 13:00 - 14:00, 2026-06-13 13:00 - 14:00, 2026-06-27 13:00 - 14:00, 2026-07-11 13:00 - 14:00, 2026-07-25 13:00 - 14:00 (America/New_York) and 4 more dates | 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]
Or dial in by your location:
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 669 900 9128 US (San Jose)
Phone Meeting ID: 834 1270 9960
Phone Passcode: [REDACTED]
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kdSroe6qvY
For a cheat sheet on how to use Zoom’s control features click HERE

This Land is Your Land: In Conversation with Beverly Gage and Unscripted Tours
2026-05-20 17:30 - 18:30 | Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum, 437 7th Street NW, Washington, 20004, United States
What stories does America tell about its own history? Pulitzer Prize winning author Beverly Gage set out to answer that question in her new book, This Land is Your Land: A Road Trip Through U.S. History. Across 13 chapters, Gage road tripped through different parts of America, from Independence Hall to the Badlands of North Dakota, to see how Americans think about their past across museums, tours and, of course, all the many inexplicable gift shop tchotkes. Join Gage and her son Nick, her part-time road trip companion, for a conversation about driving through 250 years of America’s ups, downs and everything in between.

This event is co-presented by the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum and Unscripted Tours. Copies of This Land is Your Land will be available for purchase at the event through Politics and Prose.

Beverly Gage teaches American history at Yale. Her book G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century received the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Biography, the Bancroft Prize in American History, the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Biography. She is also the author of The Day Wall Street Exploded: A Story of America in its First Age of Terror, and writes for numerous journals and magazines, including The New Yorker, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. Her most recent book, This Land is Your Land: A Road Trip Through U.S. History, was published in April.

Nick Perkins is the NYC Operations and Development Manager for Unscripted Tours, which is a fancy way of saying he writes and leads walking tours in New York City. His writing has appeared in Jacobin and The Nation. He is also a side character in This Land is Your Land, though his main moment in the book is when he gets Covid in California.

About This Land is Your Land:
Ride along with Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Beverly Gage as she travels the country to see the museums, historic sites, roadside attractions, reenactments, and souvenir shops where Americans learn—and fight—about our history. From the birth of the nation in Philadelphia to Disneyland and the California dream, This Land Is Your Land offers a guided tour of thirteen places and thirteen key moments that define America’s greatest successes and challenges.The year 2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, a document that proclaimed the liberty and equality of all human beings, but produced a country that often failed to agree upon—or live up to—those ideals. This Land Is Your Land is for everyone who wants to find that history—to experience it and confront it, to celebrate it and condemn it—in the places where it happened.Gage shows that Americans can face their past and still love their country. Toss the book in the back seat—or listen on audio with the windows down—and join the journey.

This event is free and seating is first come, first served.

Closing Early
2026-06-11 13:00 - 17:00 | Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum, 437 7th Street NW, Washington, 20004, United States
The Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum will be closing early on June 11, 2026 at 1PM for a private event.
Our normal hours will resume the following day, June 12, 2026!

Brown Bag Lunch Speaker Series: Sex Work in Civil War Washington
2026-06-26 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!
Join Katie Kirkpatrick, founder of Off the Mall tours and historian of 19th century sex work in Washington, DC, as she shares insights that she has discovered in the course of writing her book, “Sex Work in Civil War Washington, and Beyond.” Her work began with researching her walking tour, Madams of DC, for which she spent extensive time mining vital records and other primary source documentation, attempting to piece together the lost stories of women were successful Madams or sex workers, starting with the Civil War period, but continuing into the years that followed. This talk explores the specific stories of three sex workers that appear on her tour, and feature in her book.
Katie Kirkpatrick is the founder of Off the Mall Tours. She is proud to call herself a DC resident since 2002. She moved to the capital after college for graduate school, and then worked in government for many years. However, history was always her first love. She started her touring career by giving historical ghost tour pub crawls, and discovered a passion for sharing the varied and layered history of the capital area. So, she started her own company, drawing upon her interests in unique stories, a flair for costuming, and her love of DC.
Reservations are required and may be made here. Admission to the Museum is included in ticket price.

CLOSED
2026-07-02 - 2026-07-04 | Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum, 437 7th Street NW, Washington, 20004, United States
Due to maintenance related to air conditioning repairs with the recent heat wave, the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum will be closed July 2–4. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your understanding as we work to ensure a comfortable experience for our visitors. We look forward to welcoming you back soon!

Fashion on the Front Lines: Dressing America in the Civil War
2026-07-11 14:00 - 15:00 | Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum, 437 7th Street NW, Washington, 20004, United States
How do clothing and conflict intertwine? What can a hoop skirt, a soldier’s shirt, or a nurse’s apron reveal about a country at war with itself?
Join Emma Rowland at the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum on July 11, 2026 at 2PM for an immersive journey into the clothing and material culture of the American Civil War. This richly illustrated lecture explores how Americans dressed, from the battlefield to the home front, and what those garments reveal about identity, survival, patriotism, and profound societal change. Guests will explore: Women’s wartime dress, from everyday work clothing to the iconic silhouette of the 1860s. How shortages, blockades, and industrial shifts altered what people could buy, sew, and repair. The clothing of soldiers and nurses, including Clara Barton’s own wartime attire. The hidden labor of garment work, from enslaved seamstresses to Northern factory workers. What surviving garments and primary sources tell us about race, class, gender, and resilience during the war. Set in Clara Barton’s preserved boardinghouse, where she lived while launching her mission to find missing Union soldiers, this program connects the threads of material culture with the human stories that shaped the conflict. Visitors will leave with a deeper understanding of clothing as both artifact and witness to one of the most turbulent periods in American history. This program is ideal for fashion-history enthusiasts, Civil War scholars, museum professionals, and anyone interested in the lived experiences behind 19th-century clothing.
Emma Rowland is a museum educator and historical costumer whose work highlights the social and cultural history of American dress. She collaborates with the Lee-Fendall House Museum and works for Alexandria Colonial Tours, where she researches, hand-sews, and interprets historical clothing for public programs. Emma’s work blends archival research, material culture study, and storytelling to make fashion history accessible and engaging for modern audiences.
This presentation is included with admission to the museum and FREE for members.

CLOSED
2026-07-16 | Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum, 437 7th Street NW, Washington, 20004, United States
Due to maintenance related to air conditioning repairs, the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum will be closed July 16. We plan to reopen the following day, July 17. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your understanding as we work to ensure a comfortable experience for our visitors. We look forward to welcoming you back soon!

Muster Grounds and Malarial Breeding Grounds: The National Mall During the US Civil War
2026-08-08 14:00 - 15:00 | Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum, 437 7th Street NW, Washington, 20004, United States
Join Caroline Liaupsin in an exploration of the National Mall in the years leading up to, during, and after the US Civil War. Discover the unique landscape design, territorial battles between government agencies, the structures that inhabited the mall, why there were so many cattle there, and much more.
Caroline Liaupsin studied history at the George Washington University with a focus on midcentury DC history and preservation. Her interest in the National Mall developed from a long-standing fascination with landscape architecture, historical memory, and preservation. Her senior thesis: “Protecting a ‘Bit of Country in the City’: The Georgetown Citizens Association and the Preservationist Politics of Exclusivity, 1950-1970.” has been published in the History Matters Journal. Caroline’s work can also be found on WOWD-LP Takoma Radio, where she hosts DIY Not, a radio show about the DC underground music scene.

Battle-Tempered: The Physical and Psychological Consequences of War
2026-08-29 08:30 - 17:00 | Monocacy National Battlefield Visitor’s Center, 5201 Urbana Pike, Frederick, MD, 21704, United States
Battle-Tempered: The Physical and Psychological Consequences of War
Join the National Museum of Civil War Medicine and partner organizations for a unique one-day conference.
8:30 AM – 9:30 AM
Monocacy National Battlefield
“Character, Warrior Identity, and Moral Leadership: Union Colonel Charles Gilpin at Monocacy and in Peace”
Stephen A. Goldman, MD
9:30 AM – 10:15 AM
Visitor Center and Museum
10:15 AM – 12:00 PM
Caravan Battlefield Tour
Led by NPS Ranger and Public Historian Matt Borders
Noon
Lunch on your own in Frederick, Maryland
National Museum of Civil War Medicine self-tour
1:45 PM – 2:45 PM
C. Burr Artz Public Library
Frederick, Maryland
“‘Where We Were Fairly Treated’: Marylanders at the Gettysburg Seminary Hospital”
Codie Eash
Seminary Ridge Museum and Education Center
2:45 PM – 3:45 PM
“Clara Barton, the Missing Soldiers Office, and What War Leaves in Its Wake”
Madeleine Thompson
Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum
4:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Combat Veterans’ Experience Panel

REGISTRATION IS FREE AND REQUIRED!
REGISTER HERE

Dead Letter Office Images: The Civil War's Lost Sentiments
2026-09-19 14:00 - 15:00 | Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum, 437 7th Street NW, Washington, 20004, United States
During the Civil War years, hundreds of thousands of soldiers wrote letters home, many containing card-sized photos of themself. By the end of the conflict, thousands of letters and images remained undelivered at the Dead Letter Office in Washington, D.C. For decades after the war, the employees of the Dead Letter Office went to extraordinary efforts to return these images to a rightful recipient. Melissa shares photos from her collection of Dead Letter Office images and tell the touching story of these interrupted sentiments and the noble efforts by many to send them home.
Melissa A. Winn is the Director of Marketing and Communications for the National Museum of Civil War Medicine. Previously, she was the Marketing Manager for the American Battlefield Trust and Director of Photography for HistoryNet, publisher of nine history-related magazines, including America’s Civil War, American History, and Civil War Times. Melissa is a Senior Editor for Military Images magazine, with a regular column focused on women and the Civil War. She is the editor of Shavings and The Chronicle, the member newsletter and magazine of the Early American Industries Association, is a member of the Board of Directors of the Civil War Roundtable Congress and the Manassas Battlefield Trust; and serves as President of the Bull Run Civil War Round Table.
Melissa is a member of the Professional Photographers Association, Authors Guild, Women’s Relief Corps, and the Center for Civil War Photography. She collects Civil War photographs and ephemera, with an emphasis on Dead Letter Office images and Union General John A. Rawlins, chief of staff to General Ulysses S. Grant.
