•Thanks to non-member Joseph A. Giacalone, Ph.D.
In 19th America, it was quite common for hospitals to be created to serve one particular ethnic group. It was a way to service newly arrived immigrants who faced a language barrier or outright discrimination in receiving necessary healthcare. One such facility was the Newark German Hospital founded in 1868 in New Jersey. The hospital shed its ethnic label when it was renamed as Newark Memorial Lutheran Hospital in 1919.
In addition to providing hospital services, it also housed a Training School for Nurses. In 1895, a young lady named Clara Maass completed her training there and just a few years later Clara became the hospital’s head nurse. Yet Clara’s contribution to healthcare history lay well beyond the city of Newark in the state of New Jersey. Over 1000 miles away, the Spanish-American war saw many troops became victims of yellow fever. Dr. Walter Reed was conducting experiments on humans to prove a Cuban doctor’s theory that yellow fever was a mosquito-borne disease. His call for volunteers to subject themselves to the bites of infected mosquitos brought Clara Maass to Cuba. Dr. Reed proved the theory was correct. However, the young nurse who had recovered from a first mosquito bite succumbed to the yellow fever she had contracted in a second round of the experiments, dying on August 24, 1901.
Fast forward to the post-World War II period. The hospital’s name was changed to Lutheran Memorial in 1946, Like many not-for-profit organizations, the hospital was actively fund-raising to secure its financial position. From 1945 to 1975, one of its fund-raising efforts was to produce and sell an annual issue of Christmas seals. Below are a few examples from the collection I inherited from my uncle and stamp collecting mentor.
The 1948 Christmas seal features a medallion-style profile of Clara Maass. In the caption to the 1952 seal is “heal the sick” beneath the image of two nurses at work. The 1954 seal shows that Clara’s name was now enshrined in the hospital’s 1953 name change to Clara Maass Memorial Lutheran Hospital.
As mentioned above, the Christmas seals continued for another two decades. The hospital became a major medical center. But the Clara Maass story was not over. In 1976, in the centennial year of her birth, the United States Postal Service issued a 13 cent commemorative postage stamp (Scott # 1699) in her honor. In the stamp design, Clara Maass is depicted wearing the pin of her nursing education at the Newark German Hospital where her story began. Thus, Clara gains the distinction of being among those limited people who are the subject of both Xmas seals and postage stamps.
Note that the seals from 1945 through 1952 use the name Lutheran Memorial Hospital, and then from 1953 to 1975 all use the title Clara Maass Hospital. The Mosbaugh’s US All Funds Seal Catalog shows all of this series under the title Clara Maass Memorial Lutheran Hospital in section 4 group number 135. All are inexpensive except for some early era imperforate proof blocks.
