Manuscript Group 1670, Guide to the Clara Maass Memorial Hospital Collection 1959-1982

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Descriptive Summary
Historical Note:
Scope and Content Note
Access Points
Administrative Information
Bibliography

Container List

Clara Maass Memorial Hospital Ephemera

Guide to the Clara Maass Memorial Hospital Collection
1959-1982
MG 1670

The New Jersey Historical Society
52 Park Place
Newark, New Jersey 07102
Contact: NJHS Library
Phone: (973) 596-8500 x249
Email: library@jerseyhistory.org
URL: https://www.jerseyhistory.org
© 2006 All rights reserved.
The New Jersey Historical Society, Publisher
Processed by Evan Panayi.

Finding aid encoded by Julia Telonidis. July 2006. Production of the EAD 2002 version of this finding aid was made possible by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.Finding aid written in English.

Descriptive Summary

Historical Note:

The Clara Maass Hospital was named after a woman of the same name, an American nurse who was born in East Orange, N.J. in 1876. At age 15, she began working at the Newark Orphan Asylum. When Clara was 17, she entered the nursing school at Newark German Hospital, only the fourth nursing school at the time in New Jersey and the first in Newark. She graduated in 1895, after two years of training. In 1898, at the age of 21, she was named head nurse at Newark German Hospital. She served a brief engagement as a contract nurse with the United States Army during the Spanish American War. She volunteered for service in the Philippine Islands, where the US Army was fighting. In 1900, Clara volunteered for an innoculation experiment in Cuba conducted to develop a means for controlling yellow fever. Clara was one of 19 participants (the only woman and the only American) exposed on several occasions to mosquitoes that were believed to be infected with yellow fever. She, as well as several other participants, eventually succumbed to the disease. She became ill on August 18 and died on August 24, 1901. In spite of her death, the memory of Clara’s heroism lived on. In 1952, the name of the originally named Newark German Hospital (also called Newark Memorial Hospital and Lutheran Memorial Hospital) was changed to Clara Maass Memorial Hospital. It is today known as Clara Maass Medical Center, located adjacent to Newark’s Branch Brook Park.

Return to the Table of Contents

Scope and Content Note

The material from the Clara Maass Hospital includes issues of the Maass Memo hospital newsletter, a multi-page brochure featuring photographs and general information about the hospital, a Women’s Auxilliary 25th Anniversary luncheon program and copy of its constitution and by-laws. There is also a Volunteer Awards Presentation invitation and programs.

As part of a separate acquisition, there are also commemorative Clara Maass stamps and other materials related to the stamps which have a different provenance to the rest of this collection.

Return to the Table of Contents

Access Points

The entries below represent persons, organizations, topics, forms, and occupations documented in this collection.

Subject Names:

Maass, Clara.

Subject Organizations:

Clara Maass Medical Center (Belleville, N.J.)

Subject Topics:

Hospitals–New Jersey–Bellville.
Human experimentation in medicine–Cuba.
Nurses–New Jersey.
Yellow fever.

Subject Places:

Belleville (N.J.)
Cuba.
Newark (N.J.)

Document Types:

Brochures.
Invitations.
Newsletters.
Progams.

Return to the Table of Contents

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

This collection should be cited as: Manuscript Group 1670, Clara Maass Memorial Hospital Collection, The New Jersey Historical Society.

Acquisition Information

Donated by Janet C. Jessel, 2004.

Return to the Table of Contents

Bibliography

Clara Maass Medical Center. “History” <http://www.sbhcs.com/hospitals/clara_maass/history/index.html> 14 September 2006.

Return to the Table of Contents

Container List

Return to the Top of Page