Where an adventure began.
In May of 2014, I had just finished up all of my coursework for a graduate degree, and was looking for something other than homework to do on weekends. I had visited all the state capitols within a day’s drive of Washington, DC at that point, and been to a few Civil War battlefield, but with no solid plan on what to see.
I knew of the Clara Barton National Historic Site in Maryland, not that far away, and I remember waking up a bit late in the day and wanted to go do something with a free Sunday. I had purchased a new SLR camera not that long ago, and was looking to try that out as well. (Sadly the site is currently closed for renovation, but should open soon).
I didn’t know it at the time, but that pleasant Sunday at a historic home was the first site of a years long adventure across the country into history, nature, and learning more fascinating stories.
The Clara Barton site sits just over the border from Washington, DC into Maryland. The building itself was made of materials from emergency housing after the Johnstown, PA flood in 1889. The building is bigger than a normal home: it really looks like a big warehouse, and it becomes evident that it’s more than just a “house.” This served as the headquarters of the American Red Cross as well as Clara Barton’s house, and represented how Clara saw no barrier between her personal life and her professional life.
The house tour goes from room to room, highlighting the mixture of this personal and professional roles into who Clara Barton was. The welcoming parlor features a USA flag with a Red Cross flag. Barton’s office features her original desk with a bomb fragment from the civil war that she used as a paperweight.
There is also down to earth practical use for the Red Cross supplies: gauze is used to hang lanterns. Colorful windows along the side of the building are used to bring in light, but also allow warm air to leave the building and cool the warehouse in the summer.
The displays of this dedication to work are easy to believe for anyone living in the Washington area. One of the maxims that held true for a lot of folks in the area is here, we live to work, as opposed to working to live. I didn’t think too much of this when I was visiting four years ago, but it seems appropriate as the first park I went to on my quest. I’ve certainly enjoyed the jobs I’ve had in life, and believe strongly in the missions of the organizations I was in, but I certainly do not share the mindset of living your work every day. I’ve enjoyed so many journeys outside of work, and particularly like being able to switch off after work and focus on the riches of life.
Clara Barton’s house shows us an incredible woman that does the opposite and threw herself into work, and is outstanding for that reason.
The post script to this visit is, at the very end of the tour from the volunteer, we go to the small bookstore. In looking over some items, I pick up a Red Cross flag to remember the visit by, and the volunteer told me about the Passport to Parks program. I had seen it a few times, but having someone tell me about his journeys convinced me to pick up my first passport. I still have that, and have now visited 180 different national park sites, with over 200 more to go.
I would late find out the volunteer that pushed me to pick up my passport was also part of the National Park Travelers Club I joined online. In the forums of the group, I saw that he had visited all 411 parks in the system, and had a ceremony as he walked to the newly dedicated Martin Luther King Jr Memorial. I was unable to attend the ceremony, sadly, but traded some nice notes with Ranger Dan who got my interested in this adventure with these two stamps:
An American Adventure 