Official Business cover

August 12, 1882

Penalty cover from the Surgeon General's office to Clara Barton. The cover has a Washington, DC, circle hand cancel dated August 12, 1882. In 1881, Clarissa (Clara) Harlowe Barton was elected president of the newly formed American Red Cross which she is credited with founding. In 1882 the United States signed the First Geneva Convention that was the basis for the founding of the International Red Cross and was the framework Barton used for the American Red Cross.