 Dr. Ida Scudder Source: BSU History of Missiology Digital Archives
I have picked my missionary for this week's talk -- Dr. Ida Scudder, born in 1870. Ida was a American medical missionary to India, working regularly with dangerous diseases such as leprosy and bubonic plague. Her grandfather was Dr. John Scudder, America's first medical missionary. Medical missions, however, was not initially in Ida's plans.
I started researching Ida using Google, and found some interesting resources. To my utter delight, I found out that a church in Greenwich, CT (see Sources below) has a transcription of an interview with Ida about her life. I also found some other interesting resources I provided links to below, if anyone might be interested. Among them is a YouTube video where you can hear her voice, apparently toward the end of her life. As I continue my research on her, I will share what I find out. Now for just preview of what this sweet looking young lady accomplished: a college for nurses that developed into a graduate school of nursing associated with Madras University, a school to train women doctors (and later, men also), and a hospital that grew into one of India's largest medical centers. She died at the age of 90 in Vellore, India -- where she had done so much of her work. Sources
BSU's History of Missiology: Ida Scudder
National Institute of Health's Changing the Face of Medicine: Dr. Ida Sophia Scudder Vellore Christian Medical College Foundation: History Weill Cornell Medical College: India Christian Medical College First Congregational Church of Greenwich, CT: Oral History of Ida Scudder YouTube: Ida Scudder's Voice
I was trying to decide on the next missionary I would be covering for my talk this coming Sunday at a local retirement center, and decided to type a particular name into Google to see what would come up. To my delight, I accidentally ran upon a resource I wasn't aware of! It is Boston University's School of Theology History of Missiology page. They have an online missionary biography resource indexed by last name, and very easy to navigate. They also have digital resources related to African Christian biography, an archive of Russian Methodism, and a photo archive related to African initiated churches. I decided to test out the biography resource by typing in Mary Slessor's name, and found a very nice four page article from the International Bulletin of Missionary Research in the form of an embedded Scribd document.
A bit more research turned upThe University of Southern California digital archive of missionary images. To test it out, I once again typed in Mary Slessor's name, and to my delight discovered 20 photos, including one image of Mary's saintly mother and a picture of Mary I had not discovered before.
So, if you enjoy reading about missionaries or researching their lives, there are a variety of online resources available. I will be posting some more resources over the next few days as I select new missionary to research.
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AuthorSara McCaslin is an engineer, a computer scientist, and a freelance writer. Archives
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