This Official First Day Cover features the 1976 13¢ Clara Maass commemorative stamp, postmarked on the first day of issue, August 18, 1976, in Belleville, New Jersey. The cachet honors the centennial of her birth (1876-1976) with a portrait of the nurse and text detailing her service alongside Majors Walter Reed and William Gorgas.
Clara Maass was the only woman to volunteer for the yellow fever experiments in Cuba and the only American to die from them. Her sacrifice helped prove that mosquitoes carry the disease, paving the way for modern mosquito-control methods that saved countless lives during the construction of the Panama Canal and beyond.
The cachet artwork includes a detailed illustration of Maass in uniform alongside a historic hospital building, with the striking red-and-blue typography typical of 1970s U.S. FDCs. The stamp itself shows a color portrait of Maass with the inscription “She gave her life.”
A fine addition for collectors of medical history, nursing, or women-in-science topicals, this well-preserved cover displays sharp postmark detail and attractive cachet artwork.
