Women in Medicine and Indian History: Dr. Ida: India, Biography of Pioneering Physician Ida S. Scudder, Signed by Author, 1938

Women in Science India Medical Schools For Women

Book

Jeffrey, Mary Pauline. Dr. Ida: India, The Life Story of Ida S. Scudder, 1938. Signed biography of American physician and medical missionary Ida Sophia Scudder (1870–1960), who established hospitals and medical training programs for women in colonial India. Born in India to American missionary parents, Scudder pursued medicine after witnessing the consequences of restrictions preventing Indian women from receiving treatment from male physicians. In 1899, she graduated from Cornell Medical College as a member of its first graduating class to include women, returning to India in 1900 to establish a small clinic in Vellore. Within two years, she had founded the Mary Taber Schell Memorial Hospital, which developed into a major center for women's medical treatment and professional training. Her subsequent establishment of a nursing school in 1909 and the Union Mission Medical School for Women in 1918 expanded opportunities for Indian women to enter the medical profession.
Jeffrey, Mary Pauline. Dr. Ida: India, The Life Story of Ida S. Scudder. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1938. Signed and inscribed by the author on the front endpaper. 212 pages, with a frontispiece portrait and 18 additional illustrations throughout. Original blue cloth boards, measuring 8 x 6 inches. Jeffrey recounts Scudder's upbringing in a missionary family, her medical education in the United States, and her return to India to establish healthcare facilities for women who faced religious and social restrictions on treatment by male physicians. The biography traces the expansion of her work from a small rural clinic into a hospital and medical training institution, documenting her efforts to provide both medical care and professional education for Indian women.
Published in 1938, while Scudder remained active in the administration of her medical institutions, the biography records the development of women's medical education in British India before independence. Her work at Vellore addressed both the shortage of female physicians and the restrictions that prevented many Indian women from seeking treatment, while establishing training opportunities for Indian women in nursing and medicine. The author's inscription distinguishes this copy, and the illustrations provide additional contemporary documentation of Scudder's life and medical work. A few pages contain ink corrections or annotations. Very good condition.

Item #16500

Price: $225.00