She was advised by her physician to live somewhere that was free from frost, in 1853, she went to San Jose, Costa Rica, where her health improved.

The knowledge of Spanish acquired by Bradley in Costa Rica led the New England Glass Company, of East Cambridge to seek her services in translating letters.

In the spring of 1862, she responded to a call from the Relief Department of the United States Sanitary Commission, and went with Dorothea Dix to Fort Monroe.

In December, 1862, she was sent to Convalescent Camp, Alexandria, and remained in charge of the Relief Department until the close of the American Civil War.

[2][1] In 1866, at the request of the Soldiers' Memorial Society, of Boston, Massachusetts, and under the auspices of the American Unitarian Association, she went to Wilmington, North Carolina, as a teacher of poor white children.

Within a few months, citizens co-operated with the trustees of the Peabody Fund and other benefactors in erecting the needed buildings and forwarding the work started by Bradley.

[4] A collection of Bradley's manuscripts, papers, and diaries are held at the Duke University Library in Durham, North Carolina.