Dutton Scudder, Julia Vida (1861–1954)

Title

Miss Julia Vida Dutton Scudder

Author

Dutton Scudder, Julia Vida (1861–1954)

Date

December 15, 1861– October 9, 1954

Place of origin

Madurai

Country of origin

India

Language

English

Profession

Professor

Essayist

Activist

Biographical details

She was born in Madurai, India, on December 15, 1861, the only child of David Coit Scudder (of the Scudder family of missionaries in India) and Harriet Louise (Dutton) Scudder. After her father, a Congregationalist missionary, was accidentally drowned in 1862, she and her mother returned to the family home in Boston. Apart from traveling in Europe, she attended private secondary schools in Boston, and graduated from the Boston Girl's Latin School in 1880. Scudder then entered Smith College, where she received her BA degree in 1884. In 1885 she and Clara French were the first American women admitted to the graduate program at Oxford, where she was influenced by York Powell and John Ruskin. While in England she was also influenced by Leo Tolstoi and by George Bernard Shaw and Fabian socialism. Scudder and French returned to Boston in 1886.
Scudder taught English literature from 1887 at Wellesley College, where she became an associate professor in 1892 and full professor in 1910. She was one of the founders, in 1887, of the College Settlements Association, along with Helena Dudley, Katharine Coman, Katharine Lee Bates, and other women. In 1888 Scudder joined the Society of the Companions of the Holy Cross, a group of Episcopal women dedicated to intercessory prayer and social reconciliation. Also in 1888, she joined the Society of Christian Socialists, which, under William Dwight Porter Bliss, established the Church of the Carpenter in Boston and published “The Dawn”.
In 1893, Scudder was a delegate to the convention of the Boston Central Labor Union. Later, she helped organize the Federal Labor Union, a group of professional people who associated themselves with the American Federation of Labor. Having received a leave of absence from Wellesley for 1894–1896, Scudder spent a year in Italy and France studying modern Italian and French literature.
In 1903, Scudder helped organize the Women's Trade Union League. The same year she became director of the Circolo Italo-Americano at Denison House. Moving farther to the left, in 1911, she co-founded the Episcopal Church Socialist League and joined the Socialist Party. Scudder attempted to reconcile the conflicting doctrines of Marxism and Christianity. She became controversial in 1912 when she supported striking textile workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts, and spoke at a strike meeting, but Wellesley resisted calls for her dismissal as a professor. In the 1920s, Scudder embraced pacifism. She joined the Fellowship of Reconciliation in 1923, the same year she gave a series of lectures before the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom in Prague. Scudder retired from Wellesley in 1927 and received the title of professor emeritus. She became the first dean of the Summer School of Christian Ethics in 1930 at Wellesley. In 1931 she lectured weekly at the New School for Social Research in New York. Having studied the Franciscans extensively after her retirement for Wellesley, she published “The Franciscan Adventure”, in 1931 which established her as one of the leading Franciscan scholars of her time. She published an autobiography, ”On Journey”, in London in 1937, and a collection of essays, “The Privilege of Age”, in New York in 1939. She died at her home in Wellesley, Massachusetts, on October 9, 1954, and is buried alongside Florence Converse at Newton Cemetery, Newton, Massachusetts.

Selected publications

Life of the spirit in the modern English poets

Link to external sources

Vida Dutton Scudder - Wikipedia