{{short description|New Zealand doctor}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2020}} {{Use New Zealand English|date=May 2015}} {{Infobox person |name = Emily Siedeberg |honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=NZL|CBE|size=100%}} |image = Emily Siedeberg.jpg |alt = |caption = |birth_date = {{Birth date|1873|02|17|df=y}} |birth_place = Clyde, New Zealand |death_date = {{Death date and age|1968|06|13|1873|02|17|df=y}} |death_place = Oamaru, New Zealand |restingplace = |restingplacecoordinates = |birthname = |spouse = {{marriage|James McKinnon|1928|1949|end=d.}} |relations = |children = |known_for = First female medical graduate in New Zealand |alma_mater = University of Otago |occupation = Medical practitioner |signature = }} '''Emily Hancock Siedeberg-McKinnon''' {{post-nominals|country=NZL|CBE}} (17 February 1873 – 13 June 1968) was a New Zealand medical practitioner and hospital superintendent. She was also the country's first female medical graduate.<ref>{{cite book |last1=King |first1=Michael |title=Penguin History of New Zealand |date=2003 |publisher=Penguin |isbn=0143018671 |page=266}}</ref>
==Early life == Siedeberg was born in 1873 in Clyde, Otago, New Zealand.<ref name="DNZB Siedeberg">{{DNZB|Sargison|Patricia A|3S16|Siedeberg, Emily Hancock|21 September 2008}}</ref> She was the third child of Irish Quaker Anna Thompson and Franz David Siedeberg, a German Jewish architect who had emigrated to New Zealand in 1861 and taken up mining.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10789408 | work=The New Zealand Herald | first=Andrew | last=Stone | title=New Zealand's Jewish achievers | date=3 March 2012}}</ref> When Emily was three the family settled in Dunedin, her father becoming a successful building contractor. Emily was educated at the Normal School and at Otago Girls' High School, where she held a board scholarship. From an early age she accepted her father's dictum that she should train as a doctor.
== Career == Encouraged by her father, she studied medicine, becoming the first woman to enter medical school in 1891, at the University of Otago Medical School. Although the dean, John Scott, was reluctant to admit Siedeberg, the university council decided that the school was open to men and women. The opposition Siedeberg faced was minor compared to that received by women trying to enrol in medical degrees overseas.<ref name=":0">{{CiteQ|Q104657105}}</ref> Siedeberg's experience was made easier when she was joined in her second year by Margaret Cruickshank.<ref name=":0" /> The next women in New Zealand to graduate in medicine were in 1900: Alice Woodward, Daisy Platts and Jane Kinder.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Taonga |first=New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage Te Manatu |title=Horsley, Alice Woodward |url=https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/3h36/horsley-alice-woodward |access-date=2022-10-08 |website=teara.govt.nz |language=en}}</ref>
Siedeberg graduated from the University of Otago Medical School in 1896.<ref>''Otago Witness'', 31 March 1898, p. 37.</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Page|first=Dorothy|title=Communities of women : historical perspectives|publisher=University of Otago Press|year=2002|isbn=1-877276-31-6|editor-last=Brookes|editor-first=Barbara|location=Dunedin, N.Z.|pages=111–128, 180–181|chapter=Dissecting a Community: Women Medical Students at the University of Otago, 1891-1924|oclc=51811215|editor-last2=Page|editor-first2=Dorothy}}</ref> She did her post-graduate studies in obstetrics, gynaecology and children's diseases at the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin, and in Berlin. After postgraduate training and work experience overseas, she eventually registered as a medical practitioner and set up a private practice in Dunedin, with financial help from her father.<ref name=":0" /> She was appointed Medical Superintendent at St. Helens Hospital, Dunedin, and served from 1905–1938.
Dr. Siedeberg was active in community and welfare work. A founding member of the Dunedin branch of the New Zealand Society for the Protection of Women and Children in 1899, she was president of the Dunedin branch from 1933 to 1948 and became honorary life president in 1949.
==Other activities== Siedeberg was also a foundation member of the following organisations:<ref name="DNZB Siedeberg" />
*Otago University Women's Association *New Zealand Federation of University Women *The Townswomen's Guild *Delegate to the first Pan-Pacific Women's Conference *National Council of Women of New Zealand (Dunedin branch) (1918) and served three terms as NCW president<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Sparrow |first=Margaret |title=Risking their lives : New Zealand abortion stories, 1900-1939 |publisher=Victoria University Press |year=2017 |isbn=9781776561636 |location=Wellington |pages=175 |oclc=1001434450}}</ref> *New Zealand Medical Women's Association founder (1921) and first president *Otago Pioneer Women's Memorial Association
==Personal life== Siedeberg married James Alexander McKinnon in Los Angeles on 8 October 1928 and would be known as '''E.H. Siedeberg McKinnon''' and '''Emily H. Siedeberg-McKinnon'''. They had no children. He died in 1949.<ref name="DNZB Siedeberg"/> In 1924 Siedeberg-McKinnon delivered Janet Frame, the New Zealand author and screenwriter.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Leichter |first1=Jill |title=Emily Siedeberg |url=https://www.jewishonlinemuseum.net/emily-siedeberg |website=Jewish Online Museum |access-date=4 January 2021}}</ref>
Siedeberg died in the Presbyterian Social Service Association home at Oamaru, New Zealand, on 13 June 1968, aged 95.<ref name="DNZB Siedeberg"/>
==Recognition== Siedeberg was awarded a life membership of the New Zealand Branch of the British Medical Association (1929) and of the New Zealand Registered Nurses' Association (1939), and a King George V Silver Jubilee Medal (1935). In the 1949 New Year Honours. she was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services in the field of medicine and welfare of women.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=38494 |date=31 December 1948 |page=34 |supp=y }}</ref>
The street Emily Siedeberg Place in Dunedin was named in her honour in 1993, as part of Suffrage Centennial Year.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/your-council/dunedin-history/memorials/street-names|title=Street names and plaques|publisher=Dunedin City Council|access-date=12 November 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090611150847/http://www.dunedin.govt.nz/your-council/dunedin-history/memorials/street-names|archive-date=11 June 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref> Siedeberg Drive in Flat Bush, Auckland, was also named in her honour. In 2017, Siedeberg was selected as one of the Royal Society Te Apārangi's "150 women in 150 words", celebrating the contributions of women to knowledge in New Zealand.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Emily Siedeberg|url=https://www.royalsociety.org.nz/150th-anniversary/150-women-in-150-words/1867-1917/emily-siedeberg/|access-date=2021-05-11|website=Royal Society Te Apārangi}}</ref>
Siedeberg's residence in York Place, Dunedin, has been classified by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga as a Category 1 Historic Place.<ref>{{cite news |title=Home of first female doctor given highest classification |url=https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/home-first-female-doctor-given-highest-classification |date=20 July 2023 |access-date=20 July 2023 |website=ODT}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20070928155946/http://www.nram.govt.nz/record.php?holderid=205&id=12441&parent=ncindex Archives New Zealand Biography] *[http://www.teara.govt.nz/NewZealanders/NewZealandPeoples/Jews/2/ENZ-Resources/Biography/1/en Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand listing] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090817185040/http://www.teara.govt.nz/NewZealanders/NewZealandPeoples/Jews/2/ENZ-Resources/Biography/1/en |date=17 August 2009 }} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Siedeberg, Emily Hancock}} Category:1873 births Category:1968 deaths Category:New Zealand Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Category:New Zealand hospital administrators Category:Medical doctors from Dunedin Category:People from Clyde, New Zealand Category:University of Otago alumni Category:People educated at Otago Girls' High School Category:New Zealand Jews Category:New Zealand people of Irish descent Category:New Zealand people of German-Jewish descent Category:New Zealand general practitioners Category:19th-century women medical doctors Category:20th-century New Zealand medical doctors Category:19th-century New Zealand medical doctors Category:20th-century New Zealand women medical doctors Category:19th-century New Zealand women scientists