CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

Ida R. Cummings

American teacher and clubwoman (1867-1958)

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 31, 2026
Entity authorityQ28648690 ↗
Source-derived summary

Ida R. Cummings (March 17, 1867 – November 1958) was an American teacher and clubwoman, based in Baltimore, Maryland. She was an officer of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs in the 1910s.

Early life and education

Ida Rebecca Cummings was raised in Baltimore, the daughter of Henry and Eliza Jane Davage Cummings. Her father was a chef, and her mother ran a boarding house.

Ida and her siblings were active in Baltimore's public life. Her brother, Harry Sythe Cummings, served on the City Council as its first black councilman; in 1904 he seconded the nomination of Theodore Roosevelt at the Republican National Convention. Their sister Estella married another Baltimore city councilman, Joseph C. Fennell, and another brother, Charles Gilmor Cummings, was a prominent clergyman in the city; Charles's wife was Grace Shimm Cummings, a teacher from another family of teachers.

Ida R. Cummings graduated from Morgan College, and attended the Columbia University Summer School for teachers in 1922. Later she would serve as the first female trustee at Morgan College.

Career

Ida R. Cummings was the first black kindergarten teacher in Baltimore.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Ida R. Cummings” is american teacher and clubwoman (1867-1958). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Cummings, American and teacher, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1867, 1958, 1904, 1922—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1867-03-17. For this dossier, Cummings, American and teacher is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “american teacher and clubwoman (1867-1958)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q28648690. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1867, 1958, 1904 and 1922.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Ida R. Cummings”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Ida R. Cummings primary sources, Ida R. Cummings archive and Cummings research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Ida R. Cummings”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Ida R. Cummings” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.