, with red cross formed of a brick from the home where she was born Clara Barton achieved widespread recognition by delivering lectures around the country about her war experiences from 1865 to 1868. During this time she met
Susan B. Anthony and began an association with the woman's
suffrage movement. She also became acquainted with
Frederick Douglass and became an activist for
civil rights. After her countrywide tour she was both mentally and physically exhausted and under doctor's orders to go somewhere that would take her far from her current work. She closed the Missing Soldiers Office in 1868 and traveled to Europe. In 1869, during her trip to
Geneva,
Switzerland, Barton was introduced to the
Red Cross and
Dr. Appia; he later would invite her to be the representative for the American branch of the Red Cross and help her find financial benefactors for the start of the American Red Cross. She was also introduced to
Henry Dunant's book
A Memory of Solferino, which called for the formation of national societies to provide relief voluntarily on a neutral basis. In the beginning of the
Franco-Prussian War, in 1870, she assisted the
Grand Duchess of Baden in the preparation of military hospitals and gave the Red Cross society much aid during the war. At the joint request of the German authorities and the
Strasbourg Comité de Secours, she superintended the supplying of work to the poor of Strasbourg in 1871, after the
Siege of Paris, and in 1871 had charge of the public distribution of supplies to the destitute people of Paris. At the close of the war, she received honorable decorations of the Golden Cross of
Baden and the Prussian
Iron Cross. When Barton returned to the United States, she inaugurated a movement to gain recognition for the
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) by the United States government. In 1873, she began work on this project. In 1878, she met with President
Rutherford B. Hayes, who expressed the opinion of most Americans at that time which was the U.S. would never again face a calamity like the Civil War. Barton finally succeeded during the administration of President
Chester Arthur, using the argument that the new
American Red Cross could respond to crises other than war such as natural disasters like earthquakes, forest fires, and hurricanes. Barton became President of the American branch of the society, which held its first official meeting at her apartment in Washington, DC, May 21, 1881. The first local society was founded August 22, 1881 in
Dansville, Livingston County, New York, where she maintained a country home. The society's role changed with the advent of the
Spanish–American War during which it aided refugees and prisoners of the civil war. Once the Spanish–American War was over the grateful people of Santiago built a statue in honor of Barton in the town square, which still stands there today. In the United States, Barton was praised in numerous newspapers and reported about Red Cross operations in person. Domestically in 1884 she helped in the floods on the Ohio river, provided Texas with food and supplies during the famine of 1887, took workers to Illinois in 1888 after a tornado, and that same year took workers to Florida for the yellow fever epidemic. Within days after the
Johnstown Flood in 1889, she led her delegation of 50 doctors and nurses in response, Barton's last field operation as President of the American Red Cross was helping victims of the
Galveston hurricane in 1900. The operation established an orphanage for children. (1904) As criticism arose of her mixing professional and personal resources, Barton was forced to resign as president of the American Red Cross in 1904 at the age of 83 because her egocentric leadership style fit poorly into the formal structure of an organizational charity. In memory of the courageous women of the civil war, the Red Cross Headquarters was founded. During the dedication, not one person said a word. This was done in order to honor the women and their services. After resigning, Barton founded the
National First Aid Society. ==Final years==