Abbott, Maude E. (Maude Elizabeth), 1868-1940

Maude Elizabeth Seymour Abbott was born on March 18, 1868, in St. Andrews East, Quebec, and died on September 2, 1940, in Montreal. In 1890, she became one of the first women to graduate with a B.A. from McGill University, but was denied admission to the McGill Medical School, since women were not yet admitted. Abbott attended the University of Bishop’s College and received her medical degree in 1894. Following postgraduate studies in Europe, Abbott returned to Montreal where she met the Chair of Pathology at McGill University, Dr. George Adami, who appointed her Assistant Curator of the Medical Museum in 1898. In addition to her efforts at curating and maintaining the specimen collection at the Medical Museum, Abbott became a renowned teacher and an expert in cardiac disease. In 1924, the Medical Museum and the Pathology Department were moved from Strathcona Building, and Abbott was named curator of the new Central Medical Museum until her retirement in 1936. Abbott was a founding member of the Federation of Medical Women of Canada (FMWC), the International Association of Medical Museums, and helped develop and organize the Canadian Medical War Museum. Her main area of medical interest was pathology and she specialized in congenital heart disease. She taught in McGill's Department of Pathology from 1912 to 1935, was the first woman to be honoured by the Pathological Society of London, and published her authoritative Atlas of Congenital Cardiac Disease in 1936. Her second vocation, one inspired and encouraged by Sir William Osler, lay in museum work and medical history. She was curator of the Medical Historical Museum at McGill and lectured and wrote about various historical topics, her major publication being the History of Medicine in the Province of Quebec (1931). Her honours and awards include: the Lord Stanley Gold Medal (1890), the Senior Anatomy Prize from Bishop’s College (1894), the Chancellor’s Price from Bishop’s College (1894), the Person of National Historic Significance from Parks Canada (1993), and an induction into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame (1994).

Revised on July 17, 2024, by Leah Louttit-Bunker

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