United States
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Clara Maass
East Orange, United States
Archival Overview
Dedicated American contract nurse who gave her life in Cuba volunteering as a human subject in experiments proving mosquitoes transmit yellow fever.
Biographical Record
Clara Maass trained as a nurse in Newark, New Jersey, and volunteered for the US Army Nurse Corps during the Spanish-American War, nursing soldiers through typhoid and malaria in Florida, Cuba, and the Philippines. In 1900, she returned to Havana to care for victims of yellow fever.
To definitively prove Walter Reed and Carlos Finlay's theory that mosquitoes transmitted the deadly disease, Maass bravely volunteered to be bitten by infected Stegomyia mosquitoes. After surviving a mild bout, she submitted to a second bite to test immunity, dying heroically at age twenty-five and ending human experimentation for yellow fever.
Key Life Milestones
Las Animas Hospital Service
Volunteered at Las Animas Hospital in Havana during the height of the lethal yellow fever epidemic.
Yellow Fever Experiment Martyrdom
Died after volunteering for experimental mosquito inoculation, confirming the vector theory.
Memorial Guestbook & Tributes
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Final Resting Place
Perpetual MemorialNewark, United States