Clara Maass was a brave nurse who gave her life in an experiment to find the cause of and a cure for the deadly yellow fever disease. A Newark hospital adopted her name before moving in 1958 to its present location in Belleville. Clara Maass Hospital began in 1868 under the name of the Newark German Hospital. It became Newark Memorial Hospital in 1919 (when "German" became unpopular in the United States as a result of
World War I) and then Lutheran Memorial Hospital in 1946.

Clara Maass, born in East Orange, New Jersey, became a nurse in 1895. She volunteered for the yellow fever experiments being conducted in Cuba. She died just ten days after having been bitten by a fever-carrying mosquito - on August 24, 1901. Her bravery was recognized by the nation of Cuba when it issued a postage stamp in her honor in 1951. Her picture also appeared on a U.S. postage stamp in 1976, seventy-five years after her death.

Clara Maass Memorial Hospital sits atop what was once called "Nanny Goat Hill" overlooking Branch Brook Park.

Source: Belleville: 150th-Anniversary Historical Highlights 1839-1989 by Robert B. Burnett and the Belleville 150th-Anniversary Committee Belleville, New Jersey. 1991.