Clara Louise Maass (1876-1901)
Clara Maass was born in East Orange, New Jersey, USA, in 1876, the eldest child of an immigrant German family. She was one of the earliest graduates of the Newark German Hospital's Christina Trefz Training School for Nurses in 1895 and she became Head Nurse at the hospital in 1898. With the outbreak of the Spanish-American War (April-August 1898) Clara volunteered as a nurse with the US Army.
Infectious diseases like yellow fever were more common than war wounds in the army camps and she contracted dengue fever in Manilla and was discharged in 1900. When she recovered, Clara Maass volunteered to work with the yellow fever victims and went to Cuba where yellow fever research was being carried out by the US Army Medical Corps in an attempt to eradicate the disease in the sub-tropics.
The research was being carried out by eminent doctors and Clara volunteered to aid their experiments and allowed herself to be bitten by the stegomyia mosquito. This resulted in her catching the fever and proving the link between the mosquito and yellow fever. She developed a mild case and recovered quickly. However, she volunteered again and this time died as a result, on 24 August 1901, the only woman and the only American to die in the experiments. She was buried in Havana with military honours, but her body was later returned to Newark.
Several Clara Maass stamps have been issued. This stamp was issued in 1976 as a memorial to this heroic nurse. It was issued by the US Postal Service. Stamps were also issued by Cuba in 1951 commemorating the 50th anniversary of her death. These are illustrated on the postcards on display along with a US Postal Service 50th Anniversary issue and a non-postal stamp from the Clara Maass Memorial Hospital. This was the new name given to her old training school in 1952.
Reference
Wikipedia entries for Dr William Gorgas, Clara Maass, Dr Walter Reed and Dr Carlos Finlay, 2007.