Scudder (Vida Dutton) is born in India.

The daughter of missionary parents, Vida Scudder graduates from Smith College, studies at Oxford, and comes to Boston in 1887 to teach English at Wellesley, where she remains on the faculty until 1928. A resident of the Back Bay, Scudder becomes active in movements for social change and is a founder of Denison House and the Women’s Trade League. She dies in Wellesley on October 9, 1954.