Like her parents and many other members of her family, Ida Sophia Scudder was a medical missionary in India. She was born in Ranipet on December 9, 1870, the youngest child and only daughter of John and Sophia (Weld) Scudder. When she was eight, her parents took a sabbatical and the family went to live on a farm in Nebraska. In 1887 she was sent to the Northfield School for Girls in Northfield, Massachusetts, where she studied until her mother's ill health forced her return to India in 1890.
During this visit with her family ISS became aware of the great need for women doctors. She returned to the United States to study medicine at the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania (1895), transferring three years later to Cornell Medical College (New York City) as one of the first six women admitted. She received her M. D. degree in 1899 and returned to India in 1900.
Within two years of her return ISS had built the Mary Taber Schell Memorial Hospital at Vellore; in 1909 a school of nursing for native women was established. Vellore Christian Medical College, the first Christian medical college in South India to train women doctors, was opened in 1918 with ISS as its principal. Though she retired in 1946, ISS remained active in the work of the hospital until her death on May 24, 1960, at the age of 89.
From the guide to the Papers, (inclusive), (bulk), 1853-1967, 1888-1960, (Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute)
