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Accessed: 4/14/20
Scudder, c. 1890
Julia Vida Dutton Scudder (1861–1954) was an American educator, writer, and welfare activist in the social gospel movement.
Early life
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 travel in Europe, she attended private secondary schools in Boston, and was graduated from the Boston Girl's Latin School in 1880. Scudder then entered Smith College, where she received her BA degree in 1884.[1]
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.[1][2]
Academic career and social activism
Scudder taught English literature from 1887 at Wellesley College, where she became an associate professor in 1892 and full professor in 1910.[2][3]
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.[4] She and Emily Greene Balch were also involved with the establishment of the CSA's third settlement house venture, Denison House in Boston.[5] Scudder was its primary administrator from 1893 to 1913.[1]
THE COLLEGE SETTLEMENTS ASSOCIATION AND THE CONSUMERS' LEAGUE
by Vassar Newspaper Archives
October 1, 1915
The College Settlements Association was formed in 1890 by a group of women interested in social settlement work. It aims "to bring all college women within the scope of a common purpose and a common work." The Association directs settlements in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Baltimore. It has branches in twelve of the leading colleges for women.
The Consumers' League is a national organization existing for the purpose of bettering the conditions of the workers by concerted, intelligent action on the part of the consumers. It is interested in labor legislation as well as in giving every buyer a sense of individual responsibility. It urges every one to ask for goods with the Consumers' League's label and to shop early in the day and early in the Christmas season. "
"Among college organizations few have so strong a claim upon the attention and support of the students of Vassar College" as the College Settlements Association and the Consumers' League, "which more than any of the other organizations bring us into touch with the outside world, both because of (their) intercollegiate character and their unselfish interests."
THE CHAPTER OF THE COLLEGE. SETTLEMENTS ASSOCIATION AT VASSAR COLLEGE
1891: The chapter was organized. Rent was paid for a destitute family for two months and it was supplied with clothing. During the spring and fall wild flowers were sent weekly to the Settlement in New York. In December two hundred dolls and some toys were sent there. College Subscription $58.00
1892: The chapter was formed into sixteen clubs which met weekly to sew or paste scrap books. The financial report is missing.
1893: Clothing, flowers, and dolls were sent to New York as usual. Miss Katharine B. Davis addressed the Association. College Subscription $198-33; Alumnae Subscription 365.86
1894: It was difficult to have meetings in the interests of the College Settlements Association, but the chapter made baby dresses for the Settlement in New York and sent flowers. College Subscription $166.68; Alumna Subscription 382.00
1895: Two addresses were given at the college. Clothing, dolls and flowers were sent to New York. Several students assisted at the work at the summer home of the large Association. College Subscription $163.25; Alumnae Subscription 359.66
1896: Topics about the Settlements were used for English papers. Dolls, candy, and curtains were sent to New York. Five addresses were given. The membership increased by 45 per cent. College Subscription, $235.75; Alumnae Subscription 721.00
1897: A new constitution was adopted which brought the faculty into closer relations with the chapter. Christmas gifts and flowers were sent to New York. Three addresses were given. College Subscription $200.00; Alumnae Subscription 532.50
1898: The usual gifts were sent to New York. Two addresses were given. One hundred children from the Settlement in New York were entertained at the college. College Subscription $288.75; Alumnae Subscription 418.92
1899: Students visited the Settlement in New York and sent flowers there. One hundred children were entertained as before. College Subscription $377.50; Alumnae Subscription 441.65
1900: Healthy growth of the chapter was reported. New interest as a result of a visit from Miss Dudley of Denison House. College Subscription $362.50; Alumnae Subscription 459.30
1901: A small number of children were entertained. Christmas gifts were sent to New York. Professor Mills gave one talk on the Settlement Movement. College Subscription $382.05; Alumnae Subscription, 517.15
1902: Miss Williams of the Rivington Street Settlement gave an address. At Christmas a box was sent to the Settlement in New York. In the spring one hundred children were given a picnic at the college. "Especial interest in the chapter was aroused by plans for the erection of a club house for the maids of the college, which is to be under the chapter control, and by the organization, under the direction of members of the chapter, of over twenty classes among the maids. College Subscription $244.00; Alumnae Subscription 508.05
1903: Increased interest, especially in the Freshman class, was marked. Two addresses were given. The usual number of children from New York and one hundred children from Poughkeepsie were entertained. Members of the chapter conducted twenty-five classes among the maids. Work among children in Poughkeepsie was planned for the next year. College Subscription $259.35; Alumnae Subscription 662.70
1904: A thorough canvass of the college resulted in 340 members. One address and the usual activities took place. Arlington Hall was rented twice a week for work among the boys and girls of the village. College Subscription $262.80;Alumnae Subscription 459.50
1905: Miss Williams addressed the chapter. A pamphlet was printed, describing the work of the large association and of the chapter at college, and distributed to all the students. 355 members were enrolled. The usual picnic was given. Work with boys in Arlington was abandoned but classes for the girls were held once a week. College Subscription $200.00; Alumnae Subscription 406.50
1906: Two addresses by outside speakers were given. The chapter gave a tea to the faculty at which Professor Mills spoke. The usual activities were carried on. The chapter had charge of the library for the maids. College Subscription $221.00; Alumnae Subscription 607.50
1907: There were 266 members. At one meeting members of the chapter told their personal experiences at College Settlements. A small reading group was successful. $50 was given toward furnishing the Maids' Club House. Other activities were as usual. College Subscription $218.00; Alumnae Subscription 531.00
1908: Work among the maids was the chief activity; the Christian Association turned over to the chapter the religious work among the maids. The usual picnic was held. College Subscription $334.05; Alumnae Subscription 440.50
1909: Diminished subscriptions made it seem advisable to omit the spring picnic. More interest was lost than money gained. College Subscription $250.00; Alumnae Subscription 629.00
1910: Interest was waning. College Subscription $240.92; Alumnae Subscription 456.60
1911: The work among the maids had passed from the hands of the chapter entirely. The only remaining work seemed to be the collecting of dues. Lack of interest caused the chapter to disorganize. College Subscription $456.25; Alumnae Subscription 419.00
1913: The society reorganized late in the year. Members of the faculty and students joined it. Alumnae Subscription $490.50
1914: Two addresses were given. College Subscription $79.00; Alumnae Subscription 405.90
1915: Two addresses were given. College Subscription $140.00; Alumnae Subscription (not reported yet).
THE VASSAR BRANCH OF THE CONSUMERS' LEAGUE
1900: After a lecture on the Consumers' League by Mrs. Florence Kelley, the Vassar branch was organized. The aim of the branch was to interest students in the work of the national organization by distributing literature and by personal interviews.
1901: The Consumers' League was consolidated with the Marshall Club, a club for the study of economic questions. The same officers served for both.
1902 to 1904: Lecture on the work of the League and other philanthropic endeavors were given every year before the League and the Marshall Club.
1905 to 1907: Apparently the branch of the League went out of existence because of the students' lack of interest.
1907: The Vassar branch of the Consumers' League was reorganized. Members were urged to do their Christmas shopping early, to refuse to receive packages delivered after ten in the evening, and to ask for underwear with the label of the League.
1908: In the June number of the Miscellany there appeared a statement of the aims of the Consumers' League and their White List. Lectures and discussions about the work of the League were held. Members of the Vassar branch investigated the Poughkeepsie stores and interviewed the managers. Dr. Taylor forbade this work.
1909: The names and addresses of the members of the graduating class were sent by the Vassar branch to the Leagues in their various cities.
1910: The League held an exhibit of pictures of sweat-shop conditions, of articles made under those conditions, and of articles bearing the label of the League. Several lectures were given. Miss Violet Pike told of her experiences in the Shirtwaist Makers' strike. The addresses of the Seniors were sent to the secretaries in their home cities and the class was canvassed for membership.
1911: The dues of the branch were determined at twenty-five cents, fifteen cents to be spent for lectures and ten cents to be sent to the National League.
1912: A delegate was sent from Vassar to the national convention of the League.
1913: The membership of the League was doubled. An unsuccessful attempt was made by a group to study the conditions of women in industry. The usual lecture by Mrs. Kelley was given.
1914: An exhibit of pictures of sweatshop conditions and of goods made tinder those conditions and of goods bearing the label was held.
1915: The dues were collected as usual.
Facts collected by Helen Noyes, 1916
College Settlement Association
by The Cornell Daily Sun, Volume XIII, Number 116, May 2, 1893
A movement is on foot to perfect an organization of the Cornell members of the College Settlement Association. At a meeting held in Barnes Hall last week, plans were discussed with a view to enlarge the membership and to bring to the attention of students and others the object and extent as well as the needs of this association. The purpose of this association is to form settlements among the poor and illiterate classes of a community, usually in a large city. A house is rented in the vicinity or in the midst of the people whom it is sought to elevate to a better condition. At this house women who have been students at some college or university, and who may be employed in this particular town or city may take up a residence and during the time not devoted to their regular profession or business, endeavor in various ways to raise the moral and intellectual standard of the community about them.
Settlements of this kind have been established in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, and other places. The results have strongly demonstrated the practicability of the scheme. Organizations for the purpose of extending the establishment of these settlements exist at Wellesley, Vassar, Bryn Mawr and other leading women's colleges throughout the country. There are about fifteen members of this association at Cornell. The membership fee is five dollars a year. It is intended when the organization is perfected to include the men as well as the women students of the University and all others who will interest themselves in the work of this association.
The College Settlements Association: Breaching Gender and Class in Cities [Excerpt]
by Joyce E. Williams and Vicky M. MacLean
January 1, 2015
At the same time that Hull House was beginning work in Chicago and the Neighborhood Guild in New York, a group of young women near Boston, associated with Smith and Wellesley colleges for women, were founding settlements in the Northeast. From an organization known as the College Settlements Association (CSA) formed in 1890, three social settlements emerged: the College Settlement in New York (also known as the Rivington Street Settlement) in 1889, College Settlement in Philadelphia, and Denison House in Boston, both opening their doors in 1892 although in the case of Philadelphia, the CSA assumed responsibility for on-going work. In 1910, the CSA added a preexisting settlement in Baltimore. The CSA was the product of women’s college graduates and the settlements were continuously supported, managed and staffed by DSA and a network of women’s colleges. In the beginning, the CSA was little more than the dream of a group of Smith alumnae who met in Northampton, Massachusetts in 1887 for a reunion: Vida Scudder, Jean Fine, and Helen Rand. This trio was shortly joined by other women associated with Smith or Wellesley: Katherine Corman, Katherine Lee Bates, Cornelia Warren, Jane Robbins, and Helena Dudley. An undated and anonymous note in the archives of the SEttlements Collection reads as follows,Vida Scudder, Clara French, Helen Rand, all of ’84, and Jean Fine of ’83, when in college being much interested in settlement work planned later to open a settlement under the auspices of the women’s colleges. Thinking it might be possible to open a settlement in ’87 Miss Scudder and Miss French went to Oxford for a year’s study. Miss French died and the other three lost their courage for the time being. However, they did form an organization of women’s colleges and opened the first college settlement at Rivington Street in New York with Miss Helen Rand in charge. The following year a settlement was opened in Philadelphia in December 1892. Another house was established at 93 Tyler Street, Boston, known as Denison House after Edward Denison of England.
Scudder, recently returned from study with John Ruskin at Oxford and newly appointed to the faculty of Wellesley, was apparently the moving force in the group whose primary motivation seemed to be to break the restrictive bonds of gender and class. According to Scudder the young women founders knew nothing of Hull House or other efforts in the social settlement movement in the United States although they were familiar with the movement in England. In her autobiography, Scudder wrote of their beginning, “We followed the all-too-frequent American method; we began with an Organization, then we established centers, then we sought for people to carry out our ideas. We had splendid women among our organizers and our early residents but we had no Janes Addams’ (1937:136). Scudder credited Katharine Bates as being the one to “outline the form in which our Eastern movement crystallized, a ‘College Settlements Association,’ with a governing board composed of delegates from the several women’s colleges” (1937:110). This proposed organization was to be supported and controlled by college women and was later formalized in a simple thirteen-article constitution. The stated aims of the CSA were to further the education of college women and to reduce the distance between the classes, both to be accomplished in the real world of the college settlement (sc 1890, First Annual Report: B2, F1). Over the course of its history, the CSA established or came to manage four settlements, and their public presentation of settlements as women’s work impacted the movement as a whole.
Membership in the CSA was both of an individual and organizational (colleges and universities) type, but governance we female-centered. The Constitution was at first written that “any woman” could become a member by paying an annual fee of five dollars; this was amended, in their first year of operation, to read “any person” (SC 1890, First Annual Report: B2, F1). Every college with at lealst 20 members would be entitled to two representatives on an Electoral Board, one elected by CSA members who were graduates or former students of member schools and the other elected by undergraduate members. “Two women” were also to be elected to the board to represent non-collegiate members. Interestingly, this latter provision states specifically women whereas this stipulation is not attached to other representatives. Theoretically it was possible for males to end up in governing positions since coeducational institutions could become members as could “any person” who paid the five dollar annual fee. However, the fact that most collegiate support came from, and was recruited from, women’s colleges meant that by default this was to be a female-led organization. The Constitution also stipulated that “The majority of the residents in a Settlement at any one time shall always be College women.” Decision-making power was vested in the Electoral Board with two year terms, half the members being elected each year.
When French died in 1888, Scudder joined the Society of the Companions of the Holy Cross, a group of Episcopal women dedicated to intercessionary 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.[1][2]
In 1893 Scudder was a delegate to the convention of the Boston Central Labor Union.[3] Later, she helped organize the Federal Labor Union, a group of professional people who associated themselves with the American Federation of Labor.[1]
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.[2]
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.[1]
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.[3] In Scudder's famous speech, she declared,
I would rather never again wear a thread of woolen than know my garments had been woven at the cost of such misery as I have seen and known past the shadow of a doubt to have existed in this town. ... If the wages are of necessity below the standard to maintain man and woman in decency and in health, then the woolen industry has not a present right to exist in Massachusetts.[6][7]
In 1913 Scudder ended her association with Denison House and moved to Wellesley, Massachusetts, with her elderly mother, who died in 1920.[1]
Unlike Eugene Victor Debs and other Socialist leaders, Scudder supported President Woodrow Wilson's decision to intervene in the First World War in 1917. In 1919 she founded the Church League for Industrial Democracy.
From 1919 until her death, Scudder lived with Florence Converse[8] In Wellesley they resided at 45 Leighton Road.[9] She lived with Helena Dudley, her closest friend, from 1922 until Dudley's death in 1932.[10][11]
At Wellesley College the poet Katherine Lee Bates developed an intimate partnership with fellow poet Katharine Coman, the professor of economics and dean of the college. They jointly wrote English History as Taught by English Poets.[12] Their "Boston Marriage" of living together for twenty-five years ended in Coman's cancer death at age 57. Bates, in her agony, published Yellow Clover: A Book of Remembrance[13] celebrating their love, common labor in education and literature and their involvement in social reform with their colleague Vida Scudder.[14]
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.
Later life
Scudder retired from Wellesley in 1927 and received the title of professor emeritus.[3][9] 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.[15]
She published an autobiography, On Journey, in London in 1937, and a collection of essays, The Privilege of Age, in New York in 1939.
Scudder had received the degree of LHD from Smith College in 1922. From Nashotah House, an Episcopal seminary in Nashotah, Wisconsin, she received an LLD degree in 1942.[9]
Vida Dutton Scudder died at Wellesley, Massachusetts, on October 9 or 10, 1954, and is buried alongside Florence Converse at Newton Cemetery, Newton, Massachusetts.[16]
Veneration
Scudder is honored with a feast day on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church (USA) on October 10.
Works
• How the Rain Sprites Were Freed. Boston: D. Lothrop, 1883.
• Poems by George Macdonald, 1887 (edited with Clara French).[1][2]
• Mitsu-Yu-Nissi; or, The Japanese Wedding. Chicago: T.S. Denison 1887.
• Macaulay's Essay on Lord Clive. Boston: Sibley and Ducker, 1889 (edited).
• An Introduction to the Writings of John Ruskin. Boston: Leach, Shewell and Sanborn, 1890 edited.
• Topical Outlines for the Study of Modern English Literature. Boston: Frank Wood, 1892.
• Shelley's Prometheus Unbound, 1892 (edited).
• The Witness of Denial. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1895.
• The Life of the Spirit in the Modern English Poets. Boston and New York, Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1895.[17]
• Socialism and Spiritual Progress: A Speculation. Boston: Church Social Union, 1896.
• Social Ideals in English Letters. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1898 (enlarged edition, 1923).[18]
• Christian Simplicity. Boston: Christian Social Union, 1898.
• Introduction to the Study of English Literature, 1901 [19]
• A Listener in Babel: Being a Series of Imaginary Conversations held at the Close of the Last Century and Reported by Vida D. Scudder. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1903.
• Saint Catherine of Siena as Seen in Her Letters. London: J.M. Dent, 1905; New York: E.P. Dutton, 1905 (edited and translated).
• The Disciple of a Saint, Being the Imaginary Biography of Raniero di Landoccio dei Pagliaresi. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1907 (reissued in 1921 and 1927).[20]
• Works of John Woolman, 1910 (edited for Everyman's Library).
• Bede's History of England, 1911 (edited for Everyman's Library).
• Socialism and Character. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1912.[21]
• English Poems, 1915 (edited for Lake English Classics).
• The Church and the Hour: Reflections of A Socialist Churchwoman. New York, E.P. Dutton, 1917.
• Le Morte D'Arthur of Sir Thomas Malory and Its Sources, 1917 (edited and translated).
• Social Teachings of the Christian Year: Lectures Delivered at the Cambridge Conference, 1918. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1921.
• Brother John: A Tale of the First Franciscans. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1927.
• The Franciscan Adventure: A Study in the First Hundred Years of the Order of St. Francis of Assisi. London and Toronto: J.M. Dent, 1931; New York: E.P. Dutton, 1931.
• The Christian Attitude Toward Private Property. Milwaukee: Morehouse, 1934.
• On Journey. London: J.M. Dent and Sons, 1937.
• The Privilege of Age: Essays Secular and Spiritual. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1939.
• Father Huntington, Founder of the Order of the Holy Cross. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1940.
• Letters to Her Companions, by Emily Malbone Morgan. Edited by Vida Dutton Scudder, with a biographical sketch by Emily Sophie Brown. Privately printed, 1944.
• My Quest for Reality. Wellesley: Published by the Author, 1952.
References
1. Dictionary of American Biography (1977) Supplement 5, p. 616., Charles Scribner's Sons, New York.
2. The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography (1902) James T. White & Company, New York, Reprint of 1891 edition.
3. The Illustrated Columbia Encyclopedia (1963) 3rd ed. Vol. 18, p. 5575., Columbia University Press, New York.
4. Davis, Allen F. (1984). Spearheads for Reform: The Social Settlements and the Progressive Movement 1890–1914 (Second ed.). New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. p. 11. ISBN 0-8135-1072-4.
5. Barbuto, Domenica M. (1999). American Settlement Houses and Progressive Reform: An Encyclopedia of the American Settlement House Movement. Phoenix, Arizona: The Oryx Press. p. 53. ISBN 1-57356-146-0.
6. Vorse, Mary Heaton. "Lawrence Strike". Marxists.org.
7. Tarbell, Ida M. (1912). "A Woman and Her Raiment". American Magazine. 74-75: 475.
8. Lillian Faderman (1991) Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers, A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth-Century America pp. 23–24., Penguin Books Ltd, London.
9. Who Was Who in America (1960) Marquis Who's Who, Inc., Chicago.
10. Davis, Allen F. (1971). "Dudley, Helena Stuart". In James, Edward T. (ed.). Notable American Women, 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary, Volume 2. Harvard University Press. p. 527. ISBN 9780674627345.
11. "Helena S. Dudley". Bryn Mawr Alumnae Bulletin. XII (8): 23. November 1932.
12. Bates, Katherine Lee, compiler with Katharine Coman, English History Told by English Poets, Macmillan, New York, NY, 1902, reprinted, Books for Libraries Press (Freeport, NY), 1969
13. Yellow Clover: A Book of Remembrance, Dutton, New York, NY, 1922
14. Herbert F. Vetter, "Katharine Lee Bates 1859–1929", Poets of Cambridge, US, retrieved 2011-10-26
15. "Scudder, Vida Dutton". Episcopal Church. 2012-05-22. Retrieved 2018-10-24.
16. Lillian Faderman, Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth-Century America, Penguin Books Ltd, 1991, pages 23-24. ISBN 0-231-07488-3
17. The Life of the Spirit in the Modern English Poets - Vida Dutton Scudder - Google Boeken. Retrieved 2013-12-02.
18. Social Ideals in English Letters - Vida Dutton Scudder - Google Boeken. 2000-01-01. Retrieved 2013-12-02.
19. Introduction to the Study of English Literature - Vida Dutton Scudder - Google Boeken. Retrieved 2013-12-02.
20. The Disciple of a Saint: Being the Imaginary Biography of Raniero Di ... - Vida Dutton Scudder - Google Boeken. Retrieved 2013-12-02.
21. Socialism and Character - Vida Dutton Scudder - Google Boeken. 2008-02-29. Retrieved 2013-12-02.
Further reading
• Peter J. Frederick, Knights of the Golden Rule: The Intellectual As Christian Social Reformer in the 1890s. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 1976.
External links
• Biography
• Works by Vida Dutton Scudder at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Vida Dutton Scudder at Internet Archive