Honoria Dietrichson

Honoria Sofie Dietrichson was born in Rome in 1863. Her parents were the art historian Lorentz Dietrichson and the painter Mathilde Dietrichson, and her father was then working at the Swedish-Norwegian consulate in the city. She grew up in Stockholm and later in Kristiania.

She studied medicine in Copenhagen from 1889 and qualified as a physician in 1895. In 1896 and 1897 she held posts at the National Hospital and the Maternity Institution in Kristiania, and after that she ran a private practice in the city. She was also a physician at the Home for Infant Welfare from 1902 and at King Karl Johan’s welfare institution from 1904. She is regarded as one of the first women physicians in the country.

Dietrichson taught anatomy, and later also physiology and health education, at Angelique Rachlev’s housekeeping school and at the State Teachers’ College of Home Economics at Stabekk. She wrote the textbook «Oversikt over det menneskelige legemes bygning», which came out in three editions, in 1905, 1914 and 1924. She left her profession around the age of 65 because her hearing failed, and she died in Oslo on 9 April 1934. The portrait was taken by Ernest Rude in 1913.