This 1976 First Day Cover features the 13¢ Clara Maass commemorative stamp issued by the United States Postal Service on August 18, 1976, in Belleville, New Jersey. The cover bears a handsome Art Craft cachet depicting the heroic nurse in uniform alongside a scene of her attending a patient.
Clara Maass (1876–1901) was a New Jersey-born nurse who volunteered for U.S. Army yellow-fever experiments in Cuba. She ultimately gave her life to the research, becoming one of the few women honored on a U.S. stamp for medical heroism.
The cachet inscription “She gave her life” and the small caduceus emblem underscore her sacrifice; the postmark date coincides with the centennial of her birth.
A fine addition for collectors of medical or nursing topicals, this clean Art Craft FDC displays well and represents an important chapter in American postal and public-health history.
