Eliza (Elizabeth) Margaret MacKenzie

Announcement in the Charlottetown Guardian, dated November 29, 1904, stating that Charlottetown now had a female physician who would be opening an office.

No photo of Dr. MacKenzie could be located.

Excerpt from The Dalhousie Gazette, November 14, 1904. The top image notes that there were a few women graduating from the Medical Faculty, while the Law Faculty had not yet allowed the ‘fair sex’ to enrol. Each graduate was given a short write up and the bottom image is the blurb about Eliza. She is referred to as a Lady Medical Doctor, not just Doctor. ‘At Homes’ refers to Dalhousie’s student residence buildings. The fact she enjoyed them all, indicates she probably stayed on and off campus in buildings managed by Dalhousie.

Prince Edward Island’s first female doctor – and a woman ahead of her time

Schoolteacher, physician, midwife and nurse, Eliza MacKenzie (1879 – 1937) was born and raised on Prince Edward Island where she was educated, graduating, in 1895, from the Prince of Wales College in Charlottetown. After graduation she taught school for a few years but decided in 1900 to enter the medical school of Dalhousie University in Halifax.

Dalhousie Medical School did not accept female students until 1881, and the first woman to graduate was Dr. Annie Hamilton in 1894. Women had to overcome and endure numerous obstacles in a constant struggle for recognition and acceptance.

In 1904 she became the first women from Prince Edward Island to graduate from Dalhousie Medical School.

Perhaps unsurprising, Eliza specialized in diseases of women and children. She probably thought that she would more likely gain acceptance by treating women and children. Even with her specialization, she found it difficult to build a successful practice. The very conservative society in PEI and the prevailing attitudes towards women doctors, were not ready to make these lifestyle changes.

By June 1911 she had given up her practice and was living with her parents. She changed course and travelled to New York where she undertook nursing studies at St. Luke’s Hospital, from which she graduated in 1913.

She joined the armed forces during the First World War, serving as a nurse overseas. In 1918 she transferred to the Canadian Army Medical Corps and served in Europe. She was sent back to Halifax in the 1919 because of ill health. She was diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis; she recuperated in a sanatorium in Nova Scotia.

Eliza returned to New York where she resumed her nursing duties and appears to have been on the staff at St. Luke’s Hospital for many years. She continued in her profession until 1937 when she again fell ill. Her sister, Jane, removed her back to PEI where she died on February 17, 1937. She is interred at St. John’s Presbyterian Church Cemetery, Belfast, Prince Edward Island.

Eliza Margaret MacKenzie’s pioneering efforts as the first female physician on Prince Edward Island were met with resistance from a society unprepared to accept women in such roles. The societal reluctance to embrace a woman doctor not only hindered her ability to build a successful practice but also compelled her to forsake her hard-earned medical degree to pursue a career in nursing.

Image Source:

University of Prince Edward Island, Robertson Library, Island Newspapers. (November 29, 1904), The Charlottetown Guardian. https://www.islandnewspapers.ca/islandora/object/guardian%3A19041129

Ferguson, J.A. (Ed., November 14, 1904). The Dalhousie Gazette, Archives and Special Collection. The Dalhousie Gazette, Vol. XXXVII, No.2., P. 47-48. PDF found at: https://hdl.handle.net/10222/28094

References:

MacMicken-Wilson, Jill, (2016). MacKenize, Eliza (Elizabeth) Margaret, in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 16, University of Toronto. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/mackenzie_eliza_margaret_16E.html

Did you ever wonder… No.99, (2018, July 10). Dr. Eliza MacKenzie, First Woman Physician in PEI and First World War Nurse. Memorialogy.com