There's probably no better way to learn about the historic woman who founded the American Red Cross than to visit Clara Barton's house in Glen Echo, Md., near Washington.

On a guided tour of Barton's home, you'll learn what a strong and determined woman she was. During the Civil War, Barton was known as "The Angel of the Battlefield" because she helped soldiers fighting for the North and the South, getting them supplies and taking care of them when they were wounded or sick. At the battle of Antietam, in eastern Maryland, she removed a bullet from a soldier's cheek with her pocketknife. All this despite people thinking that the battlefield was no place for a lady.

Barton, born in 1821, was a shy woman, but by the time the war ended, she had become famous. So she traveled around giving speeches about the rights of women and freed slaves.

She got the idea to start the American Red Cross when she volunteered to help soldiers in Europe as part of the International Red Cross. At first, people in the United States weren't interested in the Red Cross, especially during peacetime. But Barton realized that an American Red Cross could help not only during wartime but also during natural disasters, including hurricanes and fires. She established the American Red Cross in 1881. Today, her organization is helping the survivors of the earthquake in Japan.

You'll learn all this while standing in the dark, long hallway in the house where Barton lived the last 15 years of her life. The house has 38 rooms and 58 closets! That's a lot of space for blankets and bandages and things that people might need in a disaster.

In the offices in the back of the house, you'll see Barton's invitation to President Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural ball and a chair that is missing its back. As Barton got older, people thought she was too old to keep working, so she cut the back out of her chair to prove to them that she was strong enough to support herself.