Item #25130 Signed First Day Cover / Unsigned Autograph Note. Elsie Maass DE CORDOVA.
Signed First Day Cover / Unsigned Autograph Note.

Signed First Day Cover / Unsigned Autograph Note.

One of the nine younger siblings of American nursing martyr Clara Maass (1876-1901), who during the Spanish-American War (in which yellow fever killed more combatants than combat) volunteered for yellow fever experiments to determine the cause of the disease; bitten by the mosquitoes that carry the disease, she became the only American to die as a result of the experiments, and the public furor roused by her death brought an end to this first-ever case of informed consent human experimentation; on the 50th anniversary of her death Cuba issued a stamp in her honor, and on the 100th anniversary of her birth she was a charter inductee in the American Nurses Association Hall of Fame and the United States issued a stamp in her honor. Item #25130

Signed First Day Cover, 6½" X 3½", cancelled at Belleville, New Jersey on August 18, 1976 and with "First Day of Issue" boldly stamped. Fine. No decorative cachet at left; no distracting recipient's name/address present. Single 13-cent "Clara Maass / She gave her life" stamp at upper right. Down the center, vertically, Maass's sister signs boldly and in full in black ballpoint. Quite nice. Also present is a stiff beige 6¼" X 3½" card, unsigned, on which de Cordova notes, "I am also enclosing two 2-cent Cuban stamps that the Cuban government issued in 1951," and below this is affixed two pristine examples of this stamp. De Cordova's name/address label (DeBary, Florida) is also affixed. Portion of original transmittal envelope (cancelled 22 November 1976) present. Nice pair of both issues honoring this nurse, signed by the only known surviving sibling 75 years after her sister's tragic death.

Price: $75.00

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