Clara Barton's Own Initial Engraved Silver Spoons and She Sends Impressions of Boston to Correspondent

Returning to Massachusetts after her position in the U.S. Patent Office in Washington, D.C. was eliminated, Clara Barton lived with friends for several years. In this intriguing letter to an unknown recipient, Barton employs her powers of description to give her impressions of Boston and Worcester. Boston impressed her with its tidiness and commitment to work, while she found Worcester a "badly formed city" and wondered what "black treason" "lurked" and "skulked" among its citizens.

CLARA BARTON, Autograph Letter, to "R. R.," June 19, 1857, North Oxford, Massachusetts. 4 pp., 4.875ʺ x 8ʺ. Expected folds; very good.

Complete Transcript:

North Oxford, Mass. June 19th/57

My Dear friend R. R.
I would like if I could to acknowledge the reception of yours of the 16th inst, but I have little idea when you will be on the spot to receive anything which might be sent to you at home, and I surely could not reach you this side of the goal. I sent a mere scrawl to you at N.Y. the day of my arrival at home, but I did not suppose you remained long enough to receive it, certainly not, if you left when your letter informed me that you would.
I can scarcely realize that it is only nine days since you bade me good-bye in the dark mist of that rainy morning, amid all the smoke bustle and confusion of an Express Rail Way train just starting out of a "Babel" like N.Y.—the time seems to me much longer as I measure it back hour by hour, not because I have accomplished so much, but because the days have dragged out a slow length and hung heavily on my hands. During the first week of my stay I visited Boston, passing Friday and Saturday in the City and immediate vicinity. I often thought of you as the princely residences undulating lawns, and flowering parks which bestrid its graceful environs met my eye—true, they were not “prairies” but they were nevertheless not destitute of beauty. I had always known Boston for a fine neat City, but I must confess that it rose in comparison with its more genial Southern sisters to a height I had not anticipated, the business-like air every where apparent along its narrow streets, the tidy appearance of the children where the satchel supplied the place of the blacking-block & brush impressed me most favorably, and when I remembered that I had walked those crooked streets for two days and no little dingey bony hand with open palm had been thrust under my eye, and no plaintive, “father’s dead and mother’s poor” had assailed my sickening ear I assure you the impression lost nothing of its force—no, nor beauty, and had the elegant custom of the ancient Athenians prevailed and I had found along the wayside a statue erected to the Godess of Industry, manual labor, honest toil, or whatever name might have clothed the glorious life sustaining principle which "maketh not ashamed to work" I should have been as ready to kneel and worship as ever was the classic graceful Greek before the image of his own "Minerva."
The next day after my return from Boston was a Sabath in the country and I enjoyed it socially and I trust not immorally although I worshiped only at the family hearth and amid the dark old forests whose bypaths and mossy dells had formed my childhood haunts. The following day was spent in the far and badly formed city of Worcester, and although I detected nothing rebellious in its general contour, yet it is very possible that black treason lurked beneath the very stones, of its smooth clean pavements, and skulked behind the polished venetians which ornament its multitude of comfortable and elegant mansions. The neatly attired and genteel looking men and women who promenaded up and down in the cool shadows of its countless maples and elms looked for aught I could see, as quiet order loving and loyal a class of citizens as any in the world and yet I might have been all mistaken for how was my unpracticed eye to tell simply by looking at a man "which side he was on."

Together with two silver spoons from the Clara Barton House. The smaller sterling silver teaspoon, measuring 5.5" x 1", was made by Wallace of Connecticut, dated 1902. Featuring a floral handle, with a "B" engraved into the handle. The larger coin silver tablespoon, measuring 7.75" x 1.5", was made by Duhne & Co of Cincinnati, dated Ca. late 19th century. Both with some oxidation, light wear, and scratches. Very fine. 

Clara Barton (1821-1912) was born in Massachusetts and received a good education though she was painfully shy. Her parents persuaded her to become a schoolteacher and she received her teacher’s certificate in 1839. After working as a teacher for a dozen years, she attended the Clinton Liberal Institute in New York to continue her education. In 1852, she successfully opened a free school in Bordentown, the first free school in New Jersey. Demoted after the town built a new school building and hired a male principal, Barton quit. In 1855, she moved to Washington, D.C., and began work as a clerk in the Patent Office, the first woman to receive a substantial clerkship and equal pay with a man. After three years, the administration of James Buchanan fired her because of her "Black Republican" political views. After living with friends in Massachusetts for three years, she returned to Washington and took a position as temporary copyist in the Patent Office. After the Baltimore Riot of April 1861 against Massachusetts troops, Barton nursed forty of the victims back to health and learned valuable lessons about aiding soldiers. She began collecting medical supplies and distributing them to soldiers. In August 1862, she received permission from Quartermaster Daniel Rucker to work on the front lines. Throughout the war, she distributed medicine and food to wounded soldiers in close proximity to the battles of Cedar Mountain, Second Bull Run, Antietam, and Fredericksburg. In 1864, General Benjamin Butler placed her in charge of hospitals at the front of the Army of the James. For her Civil War service, Barton became known as the "Angel of the Battlefield" and the "Florence Nightingale of America." After the war, she ran the Office of Missing Soldiers in Washington, helping to locate the remains of more than 22,000 missing soldiers. She also lectured about her experiences and became associated with the women’s suffrage movement and the civil rights movement for African Americans. In 1869, she became acquainted with the Red Cross in Switzerland and aided military hospitals during the Franco-Prussian War. In 1881, she founded the American Red Cross and became its first president. She continued to work in the field in response to natural disasters and wars as late as 1900.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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