Archives West Finding Aid

Amelia Ziegler, M.D., was born in 1861 in New York State and was educated in the midwest. She taught school for several years in New York and Missouri before studying medicine at the Women's Medical College in Kansas City, Missouri. She graduated in 1898 with highest honors.

Dr. Ziegler moved to Portland and began her practice that same year, working mainly with women and children. It was said that she delivered 3,032 Oregon babies and never lost a mother. Her office was in the Alisky Building on 3rd and Morrison, where for several years, she shared a reception area with Dr. Esther Pohl Lovejoy. In 1903, she went to Chicago to serve as senior physician at the Women's and Children's Hospital; later she worked at Cook County Hospital and in the clinic of Dr. Isaac Arthur Abt. Returning to Portland, she joined the staff of the Women's Convalescent Home, Florence Crittenton Home and the Portland Sanitarium.

Dr. Ziegler was a charter member of the Portland Woman's Medical Club, a member of city, county and state medical societies and the American Medical Association. She served on the staff of the Women's Convalescent Home and the Portland Sanitarium. She was also a lifetime member of the Medical Women's National Association and an active member of the Social Hygiene Society.

Ziegler's brother was Frederic J. Ziegler, a graduate of the University of Oregon, Class of 1901; Jefferson Medical College Class of 1905; and a member of the University of Oregon Medical School faculty from 1911-1922 (surgery).

He attended the University of Oregon Medical School from 1897-1901, where he starred on the football team and served as a member of the UOMS faculty in the department of surgery from 1911-1922. He was a member of the Multnomah County Medical Society, the AMA Upsilon chapter of Alpha Kappa Kappa medical fraternity and Sigma Mu social fraternity. Dr. Fred Ziegler also served in the Medical Corp as a captain during WWI. Fred practiced medicine in Portland for 46 years and was still in active practice when he fell ill. He passed away only 3 weeks later.

Biography written by Archivist Karen Peterson for the 2008 National Library of Medicine exhibit, Changing the Face of Medicine: Celebrating America's Women Physicians.