Clara Louise Maass (1876 - 1901)

Born 28 Jun 1876 in East Orange, Essex, New Jersey, United States

Died 24 Aug 1901 at age 25 in Havana, Cuba

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Biography

Clara Maass is Notable.

Clara Maass has German Roots.

Born to German immigrants Robert and Hedwig Maass in East Orange, New Jersey ^[1]. At age 19, she graduated from Newark German Hospital's Christina Trefz Training School for Nurses. By 1898, she was promoted to Head Nurse at the hospital.

She served as a contract nurse with the U.S. Army during the Spanish-American War in Savannah, Jacksonville, Havana and Santiago, Cuba, and Manila. She became experienced in treating tropical diseases. At the time, yellow fever was killing more soldiers than combat.

She volunteered for a U.S. Army medical study to confirm suspicions that yellow fever was spread by a particular species of mosquito rather than contaminated objects or contagious people.^[2]

She agreed to be bitten by an infected mosquito for two trials. In the first trial, she recovered from a mild illness.

For the second trial, the physicians needed to know whether her prior exposure would give her immunity from severe illness. Unfortunately, this was not the case, and she succumbed to her illness on August 24, 1901 in Las Animas Hospital, Havana, Cuba.

She was first buried in Colón Cemetery, Havana. In February 1902, her body was re-located to Fairmount Cemetery, Newark, New Jersey ^[3].

In August 1951, Cuba released a postage stamp to honor her on the 50th anniversary of her death. In 1952, the Newark German Hospital was re-named the Clara Maass Memorial Hospital ^[4].

In 1976, the centennial of her birth, Clara was inducted into the American Nurses Association Hall of Fame ^[5] and honored on a 13-cent stamp by the US Postal Service ^[6].

Sources

1. ↑ Ancestry.com. New Jersey, U.S., Births and Christenings Index, 1660-1931 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. FHL Film Number: 4209007
2. ↑ See Wikipedia: Yellow Fever Commission
3. ↑ Find A Grave: Memorial #5827
4. ↑ Clara Maass Medical Center. “History," 14 September 2006.
5. ↑ Hall of Fame, American Nurses Association
6. ↑ Clara Maass stamp, Smithsonian National Postal Museum

• American Association for the History of Nursing
• Wikipedia: Clara Maass