In July, the NCWHS was awarded a grant of $3500 from the Johanna Favrot Fund of the National Trust for Historic Preservation for our “Interpretive Planning for Clara Barton National Historic Site” project. The grant, matched with NCWHS operating funds and a generous donation from an individual donor, funds a series of online workshops that bring together academic and public historians with National Park Service staff to re-envision the future of the Clara Barton National Historic Site (https://www.nps.gov/clba/
Located in Glen Echo, MD, Clara Barton NHS is the first women’s historic site in the National Park system (50 years later there are only 12). It was designated by Congressional legislation in 1974 and has always told the story of Clara Barton’s last 15 years when the building was her home and the Red Cross headquarters. The site will soon undergo major renovations to address long-deferred maintenance and needed upgrades to the building.
Recommendations coming out of this grant-funded project will incorporate new scholarship on women’s history and address the wide range of themes that illuminates Barton’s relevance to today – themes around women and volunteerism, disaster relief, military caregivers, physical and mental health.
We will share the results of the project when the final report is completed. Thanks go to NTHP’s Johanna Favrot Fund for Historic Preservation for its support of this timely and important work.