Dr. Ida B. Scudder - Video Interview, Coming Soon!

Here is synopsis of what you expect to see in the soon to be available Dr. Ida B. Scudder Video Interview.

SUMMARY OF VIDEOTAPED INTERVIEWS WITH DR. IDA B. SCUDDER
(Class of 1925)

VIDEOTAPE #1: Interviewer, Susan Swanson

Ida B,'s childhood as the daughter of a "home missionary" on the Winnebago Indian Reservation in Shelton, NE (near Omaha) in the early 1900s. She had two older brothers, Ernest and Walter, and a younger sister, Lillian.

Ida B. paternal grandfather, Dr. John Scudder, the first medical missionary to go out from the U.S. abroad, had bought a farm through the Homestead Act in Nebraska and moved his family ofteenagers there to recover his health which had suffered seriously from overwork and tropical diseases in India. After several years Dr. Scudder returned with his wife to India, and left his two oldest sons, John and Lewis, to run the farm for the family. The two boys married two sisters who lived on the adjoining farm. Lewis, the oldest, married Cora and his brother, John, married Nell. John and Nell moved to California where John started The Sacramento Bee.

Lewis stayed on the farm for 3 years after he was married. Ida B, tells stories of the early years of her father and uncle pioneering as homesteaders in Nebraska in the 1880s. Then Lewis took his young family to Chicago where he trained to be a "home missionary" at the Moody Bible Institute.

Ida B. relates stories of growing up on the Winebago reservation. A huge family reunion took place at the farm. Ida B.'s first memory of her famous aunt, Dr. Ida S. Scudder, is of Dr. Scudder tending all the members ofthe family through a night of food poisoning!!

(Part of this tape is hard to hear because Ida B. and I moved outside to talk and my home in Pelham, NY happened to be in the air pattern for La Guardia Airport that afternoon). Ida B, had gotten copies of church records from Creston and Lee, Nebraska which give dates of the family members as they joined or left the church to move away.

Ida B. talks about her mother, a wonderful missionary's wife and camping vacations that they took in the summers.

Ida B.'s father, Lewis, moved on to the Cateraugus Iroquois reservation near Schnectady. He later took a small church in Galway, NY and finally retired to Drexel Hill, PA.

Dr. John Scudder, III (Ida B.'s first cousin) and his wife, D(orothy) V.(aughn) and their missionary service in India. D.V. Scudder spent her time in India in the 1930s researching the records of the early Scudder missionaries and wrote, A Thousand Years in Thy Sight.

Early years of the beginning of the Vellore Christian Medical College & Hospital. Ida B.'s releationship with her aunt, Dr. Ida Scudder.

VIDEOTAPE #2: Interviewer, Susan Swanson

Ida Bo's earliest impressions oflndia when she first arrived at the hospital. She tells the story of her ocean voyage to India and her early training and work there. Her feelings of inadequacy as she was called upon to do things she wasn't trained to do.

The common practice missionaries "adopting" an Indian family and helping them to finance their children's education.

Ida Bo's furloughs and her trips to Hong Kong. World War II wartime in London. The war years at Vellore.

The transition of the medical college from an all-wornen's college to a coeducational institution and the reaction of U.S. Board to this change (particularly by Mrs.Peabody [I believe of Peabody Award fameD. (She didn't like the change and led a group of resignations in protest!!)

Viewpoints of Indian staff to independence of India from the British Empire.

The first Indian Director of the College and Hospital, Dr. Hilda Lazarus.

The development of the Radiology Department at Vellore CMC & H. The arrival to that department of Dr. Patterson, an English missionary kicked out of China by the communists.

VIDEOTAPE #3: Interviewer: Susan Swanson

Growth of the Radiology Department

The death of Aunt Ida (Dr. ida S. Scudder)

The transition of the institution from missionary run to Indian-run

The impact of Indian independence

Dr. Ida B.s retirement

VIDEOTAPE #4: Interviewer: Jennifer Georgia

Jenny and Ida B. talk at the beginning of the tape about the trip they are about to
take together to Vellore.

Ida B.s education at The Women's Medical College of Philadelphia 1925-1929:
her years there and her friends.

Ida B.'s early medical work in the U.S.

War years (World War II) at Vellore

Early directors of VeIlore CMC & H: Dr. Ida S. Scudder, Dr. Hilda Lazarus (the first Indian director), Dr. Robert Carman (an American Baptist missionary) who followed Dr. Lazarus.

The hard times of the transition to independence and the difficulties of being a white, Western missionary at Vellore during that transition.