Dr. Ida Sophia Scudder

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.

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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