Esther Park (physician)

Esther Park (Korean: 에스더 박, born Kim Jeom-dong Korean: 김점동; Hanja: 金點童; March 16, 1876 or 1877 — April 13, 1910) was a Korean physician; she was the first woman to practice Western medicine in the country.[1]

Esther Park
Esther Kim Pak in academic regalia, from a memorial brochure published about 1910.
Born
Kim Jeon-dong

March 16, 1876
DiedApril 13, 1910
NationalityKorean
Other namesKim Chyong Tong, Kim Cheom-dong, Ester Kim Pak
Occupationmedical doctor, missionary
Years active1895-1910

Early life

Kim Jeon-dong was born on March 16, 1876 (or, according to other sources - March 16, 1877 or 1879) in the Seoul district of Jeong-dong, she was the youngest in a family of four daughters. Kim's father worked for American missionary Henry Appenzeller. In 1886 he sent his daughter to study at the Ewha Girls' High School founded by Mary F. Scranton.[2][3] Kim's parents allowed her to study under two conditions: she was forbidden to go to the United States, and to leave school prior to marriage.[4]

Kim was a good student, particularly good at English. When American missionary doctor Rosetta Sherwood Hall visited the school, Kim was asked to work as her interpreter.[2] Impressed by Sherwood Hall's surgery to correct a cleft lip and cleft palate, Kim began to dream of a medical career. Sherwood Hall convinced Kim that Koreans were afflicted by Confucian prohibitions that did not allow them to be properly treated.[5][6]

Study and career

Sherwood Hall introduced Kim to Park Yusan (박유산), who worked with her husband, and on May 24, 1893, Kim Jeon-dong married him at the first Western-style wedding ceremony in Korea.[2] After the wedding, she took the name of Esther Park, adding her husband's name to the name under which she was baptized. In 1894, Sherwood Hall returned to New York, taking Esther and Yusan with her.[6][7][8][9]

Esther Park graduated from a one-year school in New York where she studied Latin, physics and mathematics.[4] In 1900, Park graduated from the Women's Medical College of Baltimore, as the first Korean woman to earn a medical degree in the United States.[10] Her husband supported Park's medical education, but he died from tuberculosis, half a year before her graduation..[2][6]

After obtaining the degree, Park returned to Korea and settled in the first female hospital in the country, Bogu-yogwan (Korean: 보구 여관; Hanja: 普救女館), in Seoul, near Dongdaemun. For ten months of work there, Dr. Park helped more than 3,000 patients, and then in 1901 moved to Pyongyang, where Sherwood Hall established a new hospital.[2] Park traveled all around Korea, including during the cholera epidemic, helping patients free of charge. In addition to the main work, she also conducted educational and teaching activities, teaching the first generation of Korean female doctors. Park read public lectures in which she emphasized the importance of health education and education for women, and promoted Christianity .[5][8]

Esther Park died of tuberculosis in April 1910, at the age of 34 years.[5][6]

Honors

On April 28, 1909, Esther Park and two other Korean women pioneers were celebrated with a ceremony: Ha Ran-sa, the first woman bachelor in Literature from an American university, and Yun Jeong-won, the first Korean graduate of the Japanese Meiji University (Music); it was attended by 7800 people.[5] Emperor Gojong presented Park with a silver medal.[2]

Park was one of the historical figures featured in a missionary pageant titled "A Cloud of Witnesses" by Dora Patterson, performed in Hazleton, Pennsylvania in 1933.[11]

In 2006, the Korean Academy of Sciences inducted Esther Park to the Korean Science and Technology Hall of Fame.[2]

In 2008, the Ewha University Alumni Committee established the Esther Park Medal, which recognizes the merit of women who graduated from the university and became doctors.[1]

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References
  1. "이화보이스". evoice.ewha.ac.kr (in Korean). 2010-04-12. Retrieved 2018-03-16.
  2. "KBS WORLD Radio". world.kbs.co.kr. Retrieved 2018-03-16.
  3. Lankov, Andrei (April 2012). "Ester Pak: first female doctor in Korea". The Korea Times. Retrieved November 5, 2019.
  4. 이화역사관 (2005). EWHA Old and New: 110 Years of History (1886-1996). Ewha Womans University Press. ISBN 9788973006557.
  5. Yi, Pae-yong (2008). Women in Korean History 한국 역사 속의 여성들. Ewha Womans University Press. ISBN 9788973007721.
  6. Hall, Rosetta Sherwood. (about 1910) Mrs. Esther Kim Pak, M. D. : Korea's first woman doctor (Boston: Woman's Foreign Missionary Society, Methodist Episcopal Church). via Internet Archive.
  7. "Esther Pak; The First Korean Woman Who Has Ever Visited America as a Student". The Philadelphia Inquirer. November 10, 1895. p. 26. Retrieved November 5, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. Lee, Bang Weon (December 2007). "[Life and medical missionary activities of Esther K. Pak (1877-1910)]". Ui Sahak. 16 (2): 193–213. ISSN 1225-505X. PMID 18548974.
  9. "Mrs. Esther Pak of Corea". The Baltimore Sun. February 1, 1897. p. 10. Retrieved November 5, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. "A Korean Woman Doctor". The Baltimore Sun. May 14, 1900. p. 12. Retrieved November 6, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. "Play Given at Mission Meet". The Plain Speaker. March 10, 1933. p. 15. Retrieved November 6, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
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