Ruth Henshaw Bascom
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Ruth Henshaw Bascom, also known as Aunt Ruth (December 15, 1772 – February 16, 1848), was an American folk artist who produced over 1,400 portraits. She was the daughter of Colonel William Henshaw and Phebe Swan of
Leicester, Massachusetts Leicester ( ) is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 11,087 at the 2020 United States census. History What is now Leicester was originally settled by the Nipmuc people and was known by them as ''Towtaid' ...
, and a schoolteacher from 1791 to 1801. Bascom married first, at about 32 years of age, to Dr. Asa Miles, but he died a year or more after their marriage. She married a second time for about 35 years to Reverend Ezekial Lysander Bascom. Bascom didn't give birth to children of her own, but she had a stepson from her first marriage, stepdaughter from her second marriage, and a niece and nephew that she raised. She documented the daily activities of her life in diaries beginning at the age of 17, which included records of the portraits that she made. While married Bascom fulfilled the role of a minister's wife, was a teacher, and was active at the local library and in
temperance societies The temperance movement is a social movement promoting temperance or total abstinence from consumption of alcoholic beverages. Participants in the movement typically criticize alcohol intoxication or promote teetotalism, and its leaders emphasi ...
. She made her first portrait in 1801, but she did not begin creating portraits regularly until after 1818. Bascom worked with a variety of materials, including pastels, pencils, cut paper, and foil. Some of her initial works were layered pieces of paper that represented the head and neck, clothing, and accessories placed over a background. She also made pastel portraits on one sheet of paper in the latter part of her career. Charlotte Streifer Rubinstein, author of ''American Women Artists: From Early Indian Times to the Present'' (1982), said that Bascom had a "calm strength of characterization combined with a sensitive feeling for shape, color and texture."


Early life

Ruth Henshaw was born on December 15, 1772, in rural
Leicester, Massachusetts Leicester ( ) is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 11,087 at the 2020 United States census. History What is now Leicester was originally settled by the Nipmuc people and was known by them as ''Towtaid' ...
, to Colonel William Henshaw (1735–1820) and Phebe Swan Henshaw (1753–1808); she was the first of their ten children. Bascom had two older half-sisters from Henshaw's previous marriage to Ruth Sargeant, who was her namesake. Her father was a veteran of the
French and Indian War The French and Indian War, 1754 to 1763, was a colonial conflict in North America between Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and Kingdom of France, France, along with their respective Native Americans in the United States, Native American ...
and during the
American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...
, he was a key leader of the Worcester County
Minutemen Minutemen were members of the organized New England colonial militia companies trained in weaponry, tactics, and military strategies during the American Revolutionary War. They were known for being ready at a minute's notice, hence the name. Min ...
. He was also active with the
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and served with
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during several battles in
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. Bascom grew up in Leicester in an area known as Green Valley. Bascom's childhood schooling is unknown; author Lois S. Avigad theorizes that she attended local "summer term" schools for girls, which generally took place between April and October. She attended
Leicester Academy Leicester Academy was a private, state chartered school in Leicester, Massachusetts. History Leicester Academy was founded on March 23, 1784, when the Act of Incorporation for Leicester Academy was passed by the Massachusetts General Court as a ...
, which opened in 1784, for a brief session in 1791. She documented her life in a diary, held at the
American Antiquarian Society The American Antiquarian Society (AAS), located in Worcester, Massachusetts, is both a learned society and a national research library of pre-twentieth-century American history and culture. Founded in 1812, it is the oldest historical society in ...
in Worcester, Massachusetts, from 1789 to 1846. Bascom created a diary for each year, starting with January 1. She recorded her daily activities, the weather, and visitors. She also included detailed travel information and the topics of her husband's sermons.


Educator

From 1791 to 1801, she was a summer school teacher in the Leicester area. She taught up to 10 children who lived in the Bascom household during her marriage to Reverend Bascom; the schooling, paid for by the community, was conducted over a short term that included basic education, singing, and a term finale with costumes. Clough R. Miles, her stepson, lived in the Bascom household and studied there in 1809 and other years. In 1814 she was made superintendent of the Phillipston's central school. When there was a demand for weaving cards in the state's textile mills, Bascom trained children in her home, school, and neighborhood how to make the cards. The cottage industry helped subsidize the income of the children's families.


Marriage and family

In 1804, when she was about 32 years old, Bascom married Dr Asa Miles, a widower. He was a physician from
Westminster, Massachusetts Westminster is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the town population was 8,213. History Westminster was first settled by Europeans in 1737, and was officially incorporat ...
, with a son, Clough Rice Miles (1796–1879). Dr. Miles was ill for an extended period and died in 1805 or 1806. Bascom moved back to her parents’ house and opened a
millinery Hat-making or millinery is the design, manufacture and sale of hats and other headwear. A person engaged in this trade is called a milliner or hatter. Historically, milliners made and sold a range of accessories for clothing and hairstyles. ...
business in Leicester following her husband's death. She married Ezekiel Lysander Bascom on February 26, 1806. He was a
Congregational Congregationalism (also Congregational Churches or Congregationalist Churches) is a Reformed Christianity, Reformed Christian (Calvinist) tradition of Protestant Christianity in which churches practice Congregationalist polity, congregational ...
minister in Phillipston, who was married twice before. His second wife died in July, 1805. Bascom did not give birth to any children during the marriage, but she was an attentive and caring stepmother to Ezekiel's daughter, Priscilla Elvira Bascom Philbrick (b. 1803), from a previous marriage. After Ezekiel's sister, Eunice Loveland, committed suicide in 1810, the Bascoms raised her youngest child, a five- or seven-year-old boy named Lysander Bascom Loveland. As a minister's wife, Bascom was busy socializing, recording church events, and visiting the sick. In addition to her household duties, she was active in
temperance societies The temperance movement is a social movement promoting temperance or total abstinence from consumption of alcoholic beverages. Participants in the movement typically criticize alcohol intoxication or promote teetotalism, and its leaders emphasi ...
and at the library. In 1816 Bascom began recording the town's vital statistics. Clough R. Miles, her stepson, who had lived and studied in the Bascom household, resided with them again when he taught school. Miles's earnings helped pay for his Harvard education and he graduated in 1817. The family also took in children temporarily when a parent lost their spouse or when a new child was born into a family. They also brought two family members into their home: Reverend Bascom's niece, Clymene Sophronia Allen and Ruth Bascom's infant niece, Phebe Henshaw Denny. Reverend Bascom was dismissed for his liberal theology in 1820 from the Congregational Church in Phillipston after 21 years ministering to the church, The Bascoms moved to
Ashby Ashby may refer to: People * Ashby (surname) * Alan la Zouche, 1st Baron la Zouche of Ashby (1267–1314), governor of Rockingham Castle and steward of Rockingham Forest, England * Walter Ashby Plecker (1861–1947), American physician and public ...
in 1820 and Ezekiel served as a minister there for 14 years, beginning on January 3, 1821. That year, Lysander took a job in Concord. Priscilla became a teacher and moved to
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, in 1825 where she worked, married and settled. This left Phebe as the remaining child in the home. In 1827, Reverend Bascom represented Ashby at the
Massachusetts General Court The Massachusetts General Court, formally the General Court of Massachusetts, is the State legislature (United States), state legislature of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts located in the state capital of Boston. Th ...
for a three-year period, which took him away from the house when he was in Boston. In the 1830s, they lived in
Gill, Massachusetts Gill is a town in Franklin County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 1,551 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The campus of Northfield Mount Hermon School is located ...
. In the early 1830s Reverend Bascom's health began to decline and he spent 9 months of the year in Savannah. He stayed with his daughter and worked as a part-team preacher. Ruth Bascom visited family— often her siblings and their children—and friends in New England during the winter months of her husband's visits to Georgia. When the Bascoms traveled they often went by
stagecoach A stagecoach (also: stage coach, stage, road coach, ) is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by ...
. In 1837, Ezekiel was a Unitarian minister in
Kennebunk, Maine Kennebunk is a town in York County, Maine, York County, Maine, United States. The population was 11,536 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Kennebunk is home to several beaches, the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge, the 1799 K ...
, as part of a ministerial exchange. They then moved to
Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire Fitzwilliam is a town in Cheshire County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 2,351 at the 2020 census. Fitzwilliam is home to Rhododendron State Park, a grove of native rhododendrons that bloom in mid-July. History First granted ...
, where her husband served as a partially retired minister. Reverend Bascom died on April 2, 1841. She traveled throughout Massachusetts and Maine and lived in a boarding house in Ashby following her husband's death.


Artist


Overview

Bascom made portraits of friends and relatives when she lived with her husband, Reverend Bascom, in Ashby. She made life-size bust profiles with pastels on paper. She continued making portraits following her husband's death. In her diary, Bascom made reference to more than 1,400 portraits, of which 185 to 215 are known to exist. Bascom enjoyed children and about one-third of the portraits made were of them. She made most of her pastel crayon portraits when she lived in
Gill, Massachusetts Gill is a town in Franklin County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 1,551 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The campus of Northfield Mount Hermon School is located ...
, in the 1830s. Bascom and Susanna Paine were two of 11 or more women who worked as professional
itinerant An itinerant is a person who travels habitually. Itinerant may refer to: *"Travellers" or itinerant groups in Europe *Itinerant preacher, also known as itinerant minister *Travelling salespeople, see door-to-door, hawker, and peddler *Travelling s ...
portraitists in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Bascom sometimes received no payment for her portraits when they were gifts or people could not afford to pay. Other times, she accepted barter or received a payment of US$1 to $3, depending upon the quality of the frame. When she made the portrait of Fanny Goodnow Parmenter in 1829, she was given $2.25 () to pay for glass and the picture.


Compositions

Bascom started making portraits in 1801 by tracing the shadow cast of the sitter by lamp- or candlelight on drawing paper placed on a wall in a dark room. At that time, cutting profiles was a popular
parlor game A parlour or parlor game is a group game played indoors, named so as they were often played in a parlour. These games were extremely popular among the upper and middle classes in the United Kingdom and in the United States during the Victorian er ...
and an inexpensive form of art. She apparently made few portraits in the first decade or so of the 19th century; she recorded making portraits just seven times between 1801 and 1808, and there was no mention of profiles again until 1818, when she made them of the recently deceased son and wife of A. Gould. In 1819 she began making profiles in the evenings. The subject's features and other details were drawn with a pencil. Bascom had two methods for creating portraits. Until the mid-1820s features were identified by cuts made on the portrait paper under which was a dark background. She began creating collages in 1828 with clothing cut from paper—metal foil was used for buttons, jewelry and eyeglass frames—which were layered on the cut-out of the subject's head and neck. "Her portrait of ''Elizabeth Cummings Low'' (1829) is one such collage composition pasted onto a slate blue ground; the crisp photographic lines are evocative of the shadow-tracing process," according to Lois S. Avigad. In rare cases, she used silk ribbons in the work. In the mid-1830s she began to create portraits drawn on one sheet of paper. Background might be brown or blue pastel, include dark green trees or ruffle curtains, or suggest an oval inner frame by adding convex arcs in the upper corners with spandrel corners. She continued for a period of time to also create the collage-style portraits.


Death

Bascom died on February 15, 1848, in Ashby, Massachusetts. Most of her portraits, dated from the 1830s, were found in
Franklin County, Massachusetts Franklin County is a nongovernmental county in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Massachusetts. At the 2020 census, the population was 71,029, which made it the least populous county on the Massachusetts mainland, and the third leas ...
.


Collections

*
American Folk Art Museum The American Folk Art Museum is an art museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, at 2 Lincoln Square, Columbus Avenue at 66th Street. It is the premier institution devoted to the aesthetic appreciation of folk art and creativ ...
, New York City *
American Museum in Britain The American Museum and Gardens (formerly American Museum in Britain) is a museum of American art and culture based at Claverton, near Bath, England. Its collections of American furniture, quilts and folk art are displayed in a Grade I listed ...
,
Claverton Manor The American Museum and Gardens (formerly American Museum in Britain) is a museum of American art and culture based at Claverton, near Bath, England. Its collections of American furniture, quilts and folk art are displayed in a Grade I listed ...
,
Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...
,
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*
Daughters of the American Revolution The National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (often abbreviated as DAR or NSDAR) is a lineage-based membership service organization for women who are directly descended from a patriot of the American Revolutionary War. A non-p ...
Museum, Washington D.C. *
Deerfield Academy Deerfield Academy (often called Deerfield or DA) is an Independent school, independent College-preparatory school, college-preparatory boarding and day school in Deerfield, Massachusetts. Founded in 1797, it is one of the oldest secondary schoo ...
, Massachusetts *
Fenimore Art Museum The Fenimore Art Museum (formerly known as New York State Historical Association) is a museum located in Cooperstown, New York, Cooperstown, New York (state), New York on the west side of Otsego Lake (New York), Otsego Lake. Collection strengths ...
, Cooperstown, New York * Fitzwilliam Historical Society, New Hampshire * Five Colleges and Historic Deerfield Museum Consortium * Leicester Library, Massachusetts *
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the list of largest art museums, 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 painting ...
*
Old Sturbridge Village Old Sturbridge Village is a living museum located in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, which recreates life in rural New England during the 1790s through 1830s. It is the largest living museum in New England, covering more than 200 acres (81 hectares ...
, Massachusetts *
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, Pennsylvania *
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, Delaware *
Worcester Art Museum The Worcester Art Museum houses over 38,000 works of art dating from antiquity to the present day and representing cultures from all over the world. The museum opened in 1898 in Worcester, Massachusetts. Its holdings include Roman mosaics, Europe ...
, Massachusetts


Works

This is a partial list of Bascom's works: * ''Woman on Blue Background,'' pastel, * ''Fanny Goodnow Parmenter'', pastel and pencil on paper, 1829, Goodnow Library Collection, Sudbury, MA * ''Eliza Ann Hubbard'' (1826–1901), pastel and pencil on paper, 1830, private collection * ''Ellen Jane Hubbard'', 1830 * ''Ezekiel Lysander Bascom'' (1777–1841), pastel on paper, , Historic Deerfield, Massachusetts * ''George B. Hubbard'', 1830 * ''Jonathan A. Hubbard'', 1830 * ''Self-portrait'', pastel on paper, , Old Sturbridge Village, Massachusetts * ''Thomas Cushing Barr'' (1823–1872), pastel and pencil on paper, 1834, private collection * ''Cutout Profile of a Lady'', , Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania * ''Eliza Jane Fay'', 1840, Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, New York * ''Self-portrait'', pastel on paper, , Historic Deerfield, Massachusetts * ''Three Pastel Heads'', unknown date, Deerfield Academy, Massachusetts * ''Miss Nancy Rawson'' (-1848), watercolor drawing, unknown date, Leicester Library, Massachusetts


Notes


References


Further reading

* * * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bascom, Ruth Henshaw 1772 births 1848 deaths Painters from Massachusetts American portrait painters American folk artists Ashby, Massachusetts 19th-century American painters 19th-century American women painters People from Leicester, Massachusetts People from Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire People from Gill, Massachusetts People from Middlesex County, Massachusetts