Lillias H. (Lillias Horton) Underwood

Born on June 21, 1851, in Albany, New York, she trained as a doctor and was sent to Korea in 1888 as a medical missionary. Soon after arriving in Seoul, she married Horace Grant Underwood, another American missionary, and became an important early figure in both medical and missionary work in Korea.

She is best remembered for combining practical service with writing. Alongside her medical work, she recorded everyday life, customs, and social change in Korea in books including Fifteen Years Among the Top-Knots and With Tommy Tompkins in Korea, giving English-language readers a rare firsthand view of the country.

Her life linked several worlds at once: American medicine, Protestant missions, and modern Korean history. She died in Seoul on October 29, 1921, and is still remembered for her role as a physician, observer, and author whose work preserves a detailed picture of Korea in her era.