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Tour Clara Barton’s boardinghouse home and office with the man who saved it from destruction.
More than 20 years ago, Richard Lyons was on a routine inspection when he discovered a trove of 19th century artifacts tucked away in the attic of an old boardinghouse on 7th Street in Washington. Many of those artifacts belonged to Clara Barton.
The discovery led to a decades-long project to preserve the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office and turn it into a museum.
On November 23, 2019, you have the opportunity to tour the museum with the man who saved the Missing Soldiers Office. Richard Lyons will be leading tours and detailing how he made the discovery of the space where Clara Barton lived and worked during and immediately after the Civil War.
The tours are included with admission to the museum and museum members get in free. As there are a limited number of spots advance registration is highly recommended. Lyons will lead tours at 12:30 PM and 3:30 PM.
12:30 Tour Member Tickets 12:30 Tour General Public Tickets
3:30 Tour Member Tickets 3:30 Tour General Public Tickets
READ MORE ABOUT THE DISCOVERY
BARTON TREASURES UNEARTHED IN D.C. DUST (Washington Post, 1997)
A Sentinel in the Preservation of a Clara Barton Home (Washington Post, 2006)
How a Government Worker Discovered Clara Barton’s Missing Soldiers Office (Washingtonian Magazine, 2016)
HOURS:
Thursday through Saturday
Opens at 11:00 AM
Last Admission at 5:00 PM
Tours begin on the half hour
Tours will only be offered at 12:30, 1:30, & 2:30 on December 14
PHONE:
(202) 824-0613
LOCATION:
437 7th Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20004
Looking for our Mailing Address?
The preserved rooms are accessible by both stairs and elevator.
Admission rates apply.
At the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum, learn about the surprising connection between the Civil War and our modern Christmas season.
Hear about the first combat many Civil War soldiers experienced at the little known Battle of Dranesville in Fairfax County, Virginia.
When I reached [home], and looked in the mirror, my face was still the color of gunpowder, a deep blue. Oh yes, I went to the front!
The patriot blood of my father was warm in my veins.
I don’t know how long it has been since my ear has been free from the roll of a drum. It is the music I sleep by and I love it.
I may sometimes be willing to teach for nothing, but if paid at all, I shall never do a man’s work for less than a man’s pay.
Though it is little that one woman can do, still I crave the privilege of doing it.
[She] toiled as few men could have done, stanching wounds which might otherwise have proved fatal, administering cordials to the fainting soldier, cheering those destined to undergo amputation, moistening lips parched with thirst [and closing the eyes of the dead].
I only wish I could work to some purpose. I have no right to these easy comfortable days and our poor men suffering and dying thirsting … My lot is too easy and I am sorry for it.
It was a miserable night. There was a sense of impending doom. We knew, everyone knew, that two great armies of 80,000 men were lying there face to face, only waiting for dawn to begin the battle.
I ask neither pay or praise, simply a soldier’s fare and the sanction of your Excellency to go and do with my might, whatever my hands can find to do.