Bradford Cannon papers

Bradford Cannon (BC), MD, a plastic surgeon and Clinical Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, whose contributions to plastic surgery include improvements to burn treatments and reconstructive techniques. His research and publications include original work on wound healing, soft tissue and bony reconstruction, tissue transplantation, and radiation injuries.

Cannon was born on December 2, 1907 in Cambridge, Mass. He waas the son of Walter Bradford Cannon (WBC) (1871-1945) and Cornelia James Cannon (CJC) (1876-1969). BC received the SB in chemistry from Harvard in 1929. He married Ellen DeNormandie in 1938, and they had five children. Additional information about BC’s family and their life in Cambridge, Mass. may be found in Marion Cannon Schlesinger’s autobiography, Snatched From Oblivion: A Cambridge Memoir, published in 1979.

Following graduation, BC completed a general surgical residency under Evarts A. Graham at the Barnes Hospital in St. Louis. While there, he worked with Vilray P. Blair and James Barrett Brown, and became interested in plastic surgery. He returned to Boston in 1940 as an Assistant Surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and specialized in burn treatment under Varaztad H. Kazanjian in the Plastic Clinic. BC assumed direction of the Clinic in 1941.

Also in 1941, at the behest of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, BC and Kazanjian started a clinic to treat congenital deficiencies at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Mass., under the auspices of its Crippled Children’s Program. The center operated until 1974.

At the MGH Plastic Clinic, BC and his brother-in-law, Oliver Cope, studied the effectiveness of tannic acid, the most commonly accepted burn therapy treatment. Cannon recognized that immediate excision of affected areas, combined with skin grafts, was a superior treatment to tannic acid. Although already drafted into the Army Medical Service, BC remained at MGH to treat the victims of the Cocoanut Grove fire disaster in November 1942. BC and his colleagues tested their new treatment in the aftermath of the fire.

In 1943, BC was commissioned a First Lieutenant in the United States Army. He was assigned to duty as Assistant Chief of the Plastic Surgery Section at Valley Forge General Hospital (VFGH) in Phoenixville, Penn., under the direction of James Barrett Brown. During his four years of service, BC participated in over 15,000 operations, mostly reconstructive procedures, without a single fatality. He received the Legion of Merit Citation “for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services and achievements” in 1946. That same year, BC replaced Brown as Chief of Plastic Surgery at VFGH. BC had attained the rank of Lieutenant Colonel by the time of his discharge in 1947. BC returned to Boston and HMS in 1947 and was appointed Clinical Associate in Surgery. BC was appointed Associate Clinical Professor of Surgery in 1973 and Clinical Professor of Surgery in 1974; he later retired as Clinical Professor of Surgery Emeritus in 1974. An active HMS alumnus, BC served as vice-president 1968-1971 and president 1981-1982 of the HMS Alumni Association.

While maintaining his appointments at Harvard Medical School, BC resumed both his private practice and his duties at the MGH Plastic Clinic. From 1953 to 1963, BC served as a consultant for the United States Atomic Energy Commission, and made three separate trips to the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific to study the effects of fallout radiation. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, BC worked to gain recognition for plastic surgery practice in Boston. His goal was achieved in 1970, when MGH established a formal residency in plastic surgery. BC’s fifty-year tenure at MGH culminated in his appointment as Honorary Surgeon in 1991.

BC authored, co-authored, or edited dozens of articles, original reports, and monographs for professional publication, mostly on plastic and reconstructive surgery. Topics included wound healing, soft tissue and bony reconstruction, tissue transplantation, and radiation injuries. BC was on the editorial boards of Journal of Hand Surgery, 1975-1981, and Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, 1958-1963. He was co-editor of the PRS from 1966 to 1973.

BC also maintained active memberships in many professional societies. He was a member of both the American Board of Plastic Surgery and the American Surgical Association. He was secretary-treasurer of the American Board of Plastic Surgery 1950-1955, President of the New England Society of Plastic Surgeons 1962-63, President of the Massachusetts Medical Benevolent Society 1972-1992, and President of the American Association of Plastic Surgeons 1957-1958. He was a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, and a Founding Member of the American Society for Surgery of the Hand. Cannon died of pneumonia on 20 December 2006 in Lincoln, Mass.