Horace Newton Allen was a medical doctor and the first American Protestant missionary in Korea.  After graduating from medical school at Miami University in 1883, he traveled first to China and then on to Korea in 1884 to work as a Presbyterian medical missionary. Through his missionary work, he became familiar with the emperor and at his suggestion, in 1885 the emperor founded Severance Hospital in Seoul (now in South Korea). It would become Korea’s first medical institution and is now part of the Yonsei University Health System.

 

Allen went on to become part of the United States Legation to Korea: he was appointed as secretary in 1890 and as U.S. minister and consul general in 1897. He helped organize the Korean booth and delegation to the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago.

 

Due to disagreements with the US government over its lack of intervention in the Russo-Japanese War, Allen was recalled from Korea in 1905 and established a medical practice in Toledo, where he lived until his death in 1932.