On August 18, 1976, the U.S. Postal Service unveiled a 13-cent Clara Maass stamp, making her the first nurse depicted on a U.S. postage stamp.
On August 18, 1976 — the centennial year of her birth — the United States Postal Service unveiled a 13-cent commemorative postage stamp honoring Clara Maass, at a ceremony held at the Clara Maass Hospital School of Nursing in Belleville, New Jersey.
This stamp marked Clara Maass as the first nurse ever to be depicted on a United States postage stamp, a historic milestone recognizing the nursing profession within the American philatelic and cultural canon. The issuance came amid the broader wave of Bicentennial-era commemorations celebrating notable Americans, and it specifically highlighted the often-overlooked contributions of women and nurses to American history and public health.
The stamp's design and unveiling ceremony drew attention to Maass's extraordinary story: her volunteer service in the Spanish-American War, her courageous participation in Walter Reed's yellow fever experiments, and her ultimate death in service of medical science. The event was covered by national media, including a feature in The New York Times, which recounted her life and sacrifice to a new generation of Americans nearly 75 years after her death.
This philatelic honor cemented Maass's place in American public memory and paralleled her formal recognition later that year by the American Nurses Association Hall of Fame, together marking 1976 as the pivotal year in which her legacy was fully embraced within U.S. institutional history.