This Official First Day Cover features the 13¢ Clara Maass commemorative stamp issued by the United States on August 18, 1976. The cover bears a crisp Belleville, New Jersey first-day postmark and a handsome cachet honoring the centennial of the birth of nurse Clara Louise Maass (1876-1976).
Clara Maass served with Major Walter Reed and Major William Gorgas during the yellow-fever experiments in Cuba. She was the only woman to volunteer for the program and the only American to die from the mosquito-borne infection, helping prove that Aedes mosquitoes transmitted the disease and paving the way for modern tropical medicine.
The cachet artwork depicts Maass in her nurse’s uniform against a tropical backdrop, with text noting her sacrifice. The stamp itself carries the inscription “She gave her life.”
A fine addition for collectors of medical history, nursing, or women-in-America topicals, this well-preserved FDC displays excellent color and a clear postmark.
