Canavan, Myrtelle M. (Myrtelle May), 1879-

Canavan (Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania, M.D., 1905) was a pathologist at Boston State Hospital, and at several medical schools. She was curator of the Warren Anatomical Museum, Harvard Medical School, from 1924 to 1945.

Myrtelle M. Canavan (1879-1953) was a bacteriologist, pathologist, researcher, and curator of the Warren Anatomical Museum at Harvard Medical whose medical research led to the identification of a rare disorder of the central nervous system in 1931 that would later be named Canavan’s disease. Myrtelle May Canavan was born 24 June 1879 in Greenbush Township, Clinton County, Mich., near the town of St. Johns, the county seat. She attended Michigan Agricultural College, 1898-1899, University of Michigan Medical School, 1899-1902, and Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, 1903-1905; M.D., 1905. In 1905 she married Dr. James F. Canavan.

Canavan received an appointment as assistant bacteriologist at Danvers State Hospital in Danvers, Mass. in 1907. At Danvers Canavan met Elmer Ernest Southard, Bullard Professor of Neuropathology at Harvard Medical School, who fostered her interest in neuropathology. Canavan became resident pathologist at the Boston State Hospital in 1910 and four years later was appointed pathologist to the Massachusetts Department of Mental Diseases. During this time she studied the neuropathological basis of mental disease. With Southard and others Canavan authored a monograph series, Waverly Researches in the Pathology of the Feeble-minded. After Southard's death in 1920, Canavan became acting director of the laboratories of the Boston Psychopathic Hospital. Canavan worked as curator of the Warren Anatomical Museum at Harvard University Medical School from 1924 to 1945. While curator, Canavan strengthened the collections of the Warren Museum, acquiring some 1500 specimens for research and teaching.