After her retirement, Ida traveled to several places, including Switzerland, Austria, Egypt, India, and several locations in Germany.

Born in Davenport, Iowa, Ida was one of four children to Meyer and Babette (Lowenthal) Heidenheimer, German immigrants from Württemberg.

Ida's father was a merchant that worked out of home and who left the family on one of his trips, leaving Babette to care for the children.

In order to keep the family afloat, they moved to Chicago, where Babette took in jobs of cleaning and mending until she was able to start a prosperous business.

All of the children were able and sent to public school and became educated middle class individuals, with the intention of Ida's only brother Ben, to attend university.

In addition, it spurred her toward continuing her education, which she did by attending night classes at the Chicago Athenaeum during 1875–76 in spite of her parents' objections.

Ida's results from the research at Woods Hole is said to have helped motivate Dr. Goette in inviting her to come to University of Strasbourg in 1893, to work with him even as no woman had done previously.

Hyde, during her attendance at Strasbourg, was the first woman in Germany to have ever petitioned to matriculate for an advanced degree in natural science or mathematics.

It is said that the large number of people who spoke out against Ida going through with the petition is what was the cause of that decision, and that Heidelberg University would be a better place to gain her degree.

The main problem in obtaining her degree was that her teaching professor, Wilhelm Kühne, disliked the thought of allowing a woman to work under him.

[7] Over her career, Hyde's research covered the nervous, circulatory, and she respiratory systems of vertebrates and invertebrates, and explored the effects of narcotics, caffeine, and alcohol on the body.

This device was a revolutionary invention in neurophysiology and the study of contractile nerve tissue, however, the micro electrode was never officially attributed to Ida as being its first inventor.

With the aid of area physicians, she established a program of public medical examination of school children for communicable diseases such as tuberculosis and spinal meningitis.

[8] Hyde repeatedly encountered barriers to her education and career due to her gender, and pressed for more equal access and treatment of women in academia throughout her life.

Although she was allowed to matriculate, the university's medical school did not permit women, and the faculty denied her entry to physiology lectures or laboratories.

Fortunately, her male colleagues shared their lecture notes, and after intense study she passed her doctoral examinations with honor.

She repeatedly pressed the university for equal pay and worked in the community to increase the opportunities for women in diverse professions.