Ida C. Pruitt (1888–1985) was a China-born American social worker, author, speaker, interpreter and activist in Sino-American understanding. Her biographer called her "China's American Daughter." In the 1920s and 1930s she supervised social work in the

Peking Union Medical College Peking Union Medical College (), founded in 1906, is a selective public medical college based in Dongcheng, Beijing, China. It is a Chinese Ministry of Education Double First Class University Plan The World First Class University and First ...

, then after the outbreak of the

Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Th ...

was a major actor in the

Chinese Industrial Cooperatives Chinese Industrial Cooperatives () (CICs) were organisations established in China during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937- 1945) to support China's war effort by organizing small-scale grassroots industrial and economic development. The movement ...

. After the

Chinese Communist Revolution The Chinese Communist Revolution, officially known as the Chinese People's War of Liberation in the People's Republic of China (PRC) and also known as the National Protection War against the Communist Rebellion in the Republic of China (ROC ...

of 1949, she retired to the United States but continued to advocate warmer relations with China. Ida Pruitt – Life and Accomplishments
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Early life

Ida Pruitt was the daughter of North

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

Southern Baptist The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is a Christian denomination based in the United States. It is the world's largest Baptist denomination, and the largest Protestant and second-largest Christian denomination in the United States. The word ...

missionaries

Anna Seward Pruitt Anna (Seward) Pruitt (1862–1948), was born in Tallmadge, Ohio, on May 16, 1862, the daughter of John Woodhouse and Urania (Ashley) Seward. She traveled west in the early 1880s to teach school in Ojai, California; her letters about the trip were ...

and C.W. Pruitt. Born in 1888 in the coastal town of Penglai on the

Shandong Shandong ( , ; ; alternately romanized as Shantung) is a coastal province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the East China region. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilizati ...

peninsula, her childhood was spent in the small inland village of Songjia, Shandong, where for many years the Pruitts were the only Western family. After attending Cox College in College Park,

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

(1906–1909), Ida Pruitt received a B.S. from

Columbia University Teachers' College Teachers College, Columbia University (TC), is the graduate school of education, health, and psychology of Columbia University, a private research university in New York City. Founded in 1887, it has served as one of the official faculties and ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

(1910). When her brother John died, Ida returned to China to be with her family and became a teacher and principal of Wai Ling School for Girls in

Chefoo Yantai, formerly known as Chefoo, is a coastal prefecture-level city on the Shandong Peninsula in northeastern Shandong province of People's Republic of China. Lying on the southern coast of the Bohai Strait, Yantai borders Qingdao on the ...

(1912–1918). In 1918, she came back to the United States and studied social work in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

and

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

until hired by the

Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Carneg ...

in New York as head of the Department of Social Services at the

(PUMC) where she remained until 1938.

Japanese occupation

During the

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese occupation of China (1937–1945), Ida assisted

Rewi Alley Rewi Alley (known in China as 路易•艾黎, Lùyì Àilí, 2 December 1897 – 27 December 1987) was a New Zealand-born writer and political activist. A member of the Chinese Communist Party, he dedicated 60 years of his life to the cause a ...

as he organized the

. The CIC was formed to organize cooperative factories throughout the countryside to support China's industry. Schools were built to train the Chinese (often crippled or orphaned) to work in and manage the factories. Indusco, the fundraising arm of the CIC in the United States, was formed, and Pruitt served as its executive secretary from 1939 to 1951.

Author

Pruitt wrote books, stories, and articles, including several autobiographies: ''A China Childhood'' (1978), ''The Years Between'', and ''Days in Old Peking: May 1921 – October 1938''. Her "as told to" autobiography – '' Daughter of Han: The Autobiography of a Chinese Working Woman (1945)'' became widely read when it was republished in paperback by Stanford University Press in 1967. This book was followed by ''Old Madame Yin: A Memoir of Peking Life, 1926–1938'' (1979), and ''Tales of Old China''. She also translated and edited many works, including ''Yellow Storm'' (better known as ''Four Generations Under One Roof'') by

Lao She Shu Qingchun (3 February 189924 August 1966), known by his pen name Lao She, was a Chinese novelist and dramatist. He was one of the most significant figures of 20th-century Chinese literature, and is best known for his novel ''Rickshaw Boy'' a ...

(1951), ''The Flight of an Empress'' by Wu Yung (1936), ''Little Bride'' by Wang Yung, and ''Beyond China's City Walls'' by George A. Hogg, ''et al.''

Personal life

In 1946, she rented an apartment with

Maud Russell Maud Muriel Russell (August 9, 1893 – November 8, 1989) was an American social worker, educator, and writer. She is best remembered for her work as a social and political activist for the YWCA in China from 1917 to 1943. Returning to New York, ...

on West 93rd Street in New York City and remained there until 1961 when she retired and moved to Philadelphia near the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

where she remained for the rest of her life. While living in Beijing Ida adopted two girls, one Chinese, Kueiching wei-ching the other a Russian refugee, Tania Manooiloff. They were educated in English schools in China, then sent to the United States. Kueiching married Tommy Ho, a radiologist from

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, in 1940; they settled in

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

, Canada, and had two children: Timmy and Nancy. Her other daughter, Tania Manooiloff, taught Russian at

Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the earliest coeduca ...

. She married Cornelius "Cornie" Cosman, a

metallurgist Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the sc ...

who worked for the

US Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government headquartered at the Main Interior Building, located at 1849 C Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is responsible for the mana ...

. They had four children: Catherine Helen, Anna Ida, Michaela and Hugh. After Cosman's death, she married Mr. Wahl. Ida Pruitt died on July 24, 1985, in Philadelphia. ''Unreferenced text mostly taken from the Radcliff Finding Aid. See link below.''

Notes

References

External links

Ida Pruitt Papers.
http://www.radcliffe.edu/schles Schlesinger Library] , Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.
Papers of Ida Pruitt and Marjorie King, 1891–1994.Schlesinger Library
Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University. *World Catalog Entry fo
Flight of an empress
told by Wu Yung, whose other name is Yu-ch'uan; transcribed by Liu K'un; translated and edited by Ida Pruitt; introduction by Kenneth Scott Latourette. *World Catalog Entry fo
A Daughter of Han: The Autobiography of a Chinese Working Woman
*World Catalog entry fo
Yellow storm by Lau Shaw pseud. of S. Y. Shu
translated from the Chinese by Ida Pruitt.(1951) *World Catalog Entry fo
World Ida Pruitt: A China Childhood
(1978) *World Catalog entry fo
Old Madam Yin: A Memoir of Peking Life
(1979) {{DEFAULTSORT:Pruitt, Ida 1888 births 1985 deaths American expatriates in China Baptists from the United States Writers from Yantai Cox College (Georgia) alumni Teachers College, Columbia University alumni American autobiographers Women autobiographers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American women writers Children of American missionaries in China American women non-fiction writers