Clara Maass was born June 28, 1876, in East Orange, New Jersey. Her parents were German Immigrants and a devout Lutheran Family. Clara had nine other siblings. In 1895, she graduated from Newark German Hospital’s Christina Trefz Training School for Nurses. Four years later, Clara was promoted to the head nurse at the Newark Hospital. Shortly after the outbreak of the Spanish-American war, Clara volunteered as a registered nurse for the United States Army Medical Department. She served in this for a year in a few places including Florida, Georgia, and Cuba. After she was discharged from her services, Clara volunteered again in 1899 to serve for the Philippines until the middle of 1900. She mainly served soldiers that contracted diseases such as malaria,…show more content… Later in 1900, Clara was contacted by the head of the yellow fever study, William Gorgas. He also contacted the commissioner of the entire study, Walter Reed, to convince him to allow Clara to help the study. This study was conducted post-war in Cuba because of the widespread epidemic the Cubans were suffering around this time. One of the studies main goals was to determine how the disease was spread, whether by touch or direct contact from the mosquito. Humans were chosen to test the theory that under medical care, a mild case of yellow fever could be controlled and allow the patient to have a full recovery and be immune from it afterwards. In March of 1901 despite warnings, Clara signed up to test the theory in its whole. In the beginning, Clara would be bitten by a mosquito that had fed on patients who already had yellow fever. The first time, Clara had only a mild case of the disease and recovered soon after. After this, scientists concluded that the disease was transmitted from mosquito to a host, but they were still unsure because a few patients had never contracted the disease and remained