Ruth Henshaw Bascom (1772-1848) diary page February 12-18, 1835

Diary

In 2027 the Colonial Society of Massachusetts will publish a digital transcription of the Ruth Henshaw Bascom Papers, 1789-1846, transcribed by Mary Eileen Fouratt and edited by Maureen Egan and Sally Hadden. The original RHB Papers are held at the American Antiquarian Society (AAS) in Worcester, Massachusetts and consist of a remarkable 6,000 page diary that spans 57 years (with 8 years missing). Ruth Henshaw Bascom (RHB) (1772-1848) was a prolific and original self-taught artist creating more than 1,700 cut-paper, bust length, pastel and paint portraits in profile of children and adults in nearly forty towns in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Maine, primarily from 1828-1846. Approximately 239 survive, 96 of which are held in dozens of museums, historical societies and libraries, including the National Gallery of Art, Historic Deerfield, Worcester Art Museum, Old Sturbridge Village, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Winterthur, and the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum. The remainder are in private collections.

Ruth began the diary at age sixteen and continued until age 74, a year-and-a-half before her death. The diaries contain a wealth of information on her day-to-day life in central Massachusetts on the verge of the industrial revolution as a member of a large and busy household. It follows her observations as she becomes a teacher, milliner, doctor’s wife, stepmother, widow, minister’s wife and stepmother to her second husband’s daughter and later a nephew, and eventually an inventive portrait artist.

This diary selection shows her combining a months-long visit to her husband’s relatives in the Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts (while he is convalescing in Savannah, Georgia) with her viewing and producing artwork. In this one week, she moves between three towns and mentions working on nine separate profiles, including seeing to frames and glass. The charming profile of the Woods babe (Jane) mentioned below, who was adopted by Rowena and Seth Wood, hangs in Memorial Hall Museum in Deerfield, Massachusetts along with profiles of her two sisters.

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Transcription

1835 Northampton, Greenfield – Gill – 12 Feb – Thursday – pleasant but cold – Mrs. Flint walked with P and me to Gilders (bought an ivory yard measure and red heart 28 cents) and to Dr. A Flints chamber to see the likeness (by Harding[1]) of Miss Skillings of Boston his intended – Dr. J H. T. and Dr. Day to Washington in sleigh, found the patient had died yesterday Dr. F – unwell at evening and retired early. I framed Mary and finished Edward’s yesterday – sent letter to Esq. Foster East Haddam Church – 13 Friday – pleasant AM and clouded PM and hard snow from 3 to 4 ½ Dr. F and Dr. Day to Hadley, by whom sent glass and Frame to Mrs. Hodge for Isaac at 3 PM, we took the stage (crowded with freight and passengers) for Greenfield – a very intelligent little man a resident in Richmond Va a Guest from home Hartford left at Whately, and lady from N York going to visit her friends in Putney VT, were 3 of the 11 passenger, nearly all of whom left the Coach (which all but overset in Hatfield meadows) to walk over bad places in the road – P and I stopped at Smeads Hotel at 7 evening and the others in 2 Coaches (one of which was added at Muddy Brook, Deerfield for Brattleboro – while we enjoy a fine parlor fireside etc. wrote to Caroline 14 Sat. pleasant and calm and cold after the squall of yesterday. P and I walked out before breakfast, to see the dwellings up street, built by Mr. Bascom’s ancestors. then breakfasted and past several hours very pleasantly reading American Traveler[2], American Magazine[3] etc. etc. till PM when Mr. Spaulding came to convey us to the “Hollow” etc. called at Mr. Joel Spauldings a while (Harriet Allen’s) and proceeded to brother Hosmer, my stopping place for the present. Mr. Wood and Joseph H – came from the Factory in evening 15 Sabbath – Fairish calm AM. and damp PM and snowed at evening all the nieces Miss Hosmer 4 came home in morn, and 2 at home before, viz. Rowena (Mrs. Wood) and Clymena – the others Caroline Cephinna Mary, Harriet all passed the day at home, reading, writing and talking – and left in evening again 16 Monday – cloudy misty and – Miss Wood and her father with Phebe and me all visited at uncle Jos Athertons ¼ mile, in evening – painted Clymena 17 Tuesday fair and warm – I rode in sleigh to visit Mrs. Willard (Emerancy Bascom) who called with me in evening at Sheldon Bascoms – their 3^rd child (daughter) 3 weeks old. – after 8 in evening sketched 3 nieces on white 18 cleared off AM after a rainy night, but snow and ice sufficient left for one to ride home in sleigh with brother (Hosmer who came for me) At evening uncle Jos Atherton and wife, Hepsah, Mrs. Burt and Catherine all visited here – I painted on Rowena Mrs. Wood and her babe, Mr. Wood home to sleep.

Notes & Annotations

[1] Chester Harding, 1792-1866, was an American painter of Romantic portraits of prominent American and English figures from the early 19^th century. He was a self-taught, itinerant portrait painter who worked in Boston and London. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Chester-Harding [2] The American Traveler; or, National directory, Author Hewett, Daniel, Published Washington, Printed by Davis & Force,1825. Hathitrust.org. [3] Possibly the American Monthly Magazine edited for the Proprietors by H. W. Herbert Vol. III New York by Monson Bancroft 1834. Hathitrust.org.

Ruth Henshaw, Ruth Henshaw Bascom

Northampton, Greenfield, Gill, Massachusetts

Art & Architecture Family History First Ladies Government & Politics Lawyers and Judges Music Nationalism and Patriotism Politics Presidents of the United States Religion Science, Technology, & Math Women

English

Institution(s):

American Antiquarian Society, Colonial Society of Massachusetts

Editor(s):

Mary Eileen Fouratt, Maureen Egan, Sally Hadden

Project Website

Source Note

Ruth Henshaw Bascom Papers, 1789-1848, Mss miscellaneous boxes / octavo volumes B. Transcribed page: 271210_octvol41_0009.jpg

Courtesy, American Antiquarian Society, Worcester MA.

Editorial Process & Document History

This transcription balances readability and fidelity to the diaries with normalized text with the following exceptions. RHB’s spelling, capitalization, and punctuation are retained. Superior letters are brought down to the line and expanded unless the abbreviation is in common use today, exceptions include proper names of people, organizations, titles and honorifics, days of the week, months of the year, titles of books or publications, and monetary denominations; & and &c. are changed to “and” and “etc.” Crossed out words have been silently omitted. Insertions, whose place is usually indicated by a caret within the text, are silently moved from the margin or bottom of the page or brought down from above the line. Line and page breaks are retained for easy comparison to the scanned diary pages on the AAS website.

Interpolated text is printed in italics and enclosed in square brackets in italics such as [torn], [blotted], [illeg.]. Inferred words or part of words are printed within square brackets. Uncertain conjectural reading or material or material otherwise obscured are indicated in brackets with a question mark. Interlineations are incorporated into the text. Text written in margins is placed at the bottom with an editorial description in brackets in italics.

A number of scholars have mined parts of her diaries for research and articles. A small portion of the diary was published in 1979 by A. G. Roeber, A New England woman’s perspective on Norfolk, Virginia, 1801-1802: Excepts from the diary of Ruth Henshaw Bascom. In the 1980s Catherine Fennelly transcribed fourteen years 1801-1814 (no diary for 1811), unpublished, which are now at AAS.

The first three years of the diaries (1789-1791) transcribed by Mary Eileen Fouratt are on the American Antiquarian Society website under the Historic Children’s Voices project. Fouratt began working with the diaries for a senior thesis at the College of the Holy Cross. In 2022 she brought in her project partner, Maureen Egan to work with the diaries during their Baron Fellowship at the AAS in 2022 in order to transcribe and complete a catalog raisonné of RHB’s artwork.

Additional Details

For current information on our RHB work go to www.ruthhenshawbascom.com or email info@ruthhenshawbascom.com

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