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Primary sourceDocument1907

Signature of Clara Barton

Clara Barton · 1907

Clara Barton's handwritten autograph signature from 1907, late in her life.

This is Barton's own handwritten signature, a direct personal artifact from late in her life.

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Black handwritten cursive signature on a white background, reading 'Clara Barton' with a flourish after the final letters.
Clara Barton, signature, 1907.

About this source

What it is

This is a handwritten cursive signature reading 'Clara Barton,' dated 1907, preserved as a digital image on Wikimedia Commons.

Why it matters

A person's signature is a direct, personal trace of their own hand. This autograph comes from near the end of Barton's long life, after decades of work as a Civil War nurse and founder of the American Red Cross, and such signatures were often collected or requested by admirers.

Look closer

  • What does the flourish at the end of the signature suggest about how she wrote?
  • Why might people have wanted to collect the signature of a famous public figure?
  • What can a signature tell us about a person, and what can't it tell us?

This document is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Clara Barton on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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