05/19/2026
This portrait is recorded in Ruth Henshaw Bascom's diary as follows: “On February 13, 1834, a day of 20 degree temperature...Thos. Cushing Burr came early to be sketched..." Ruth Henshaw Bascom is one of the most prolific American folk artists who diligently recorded the comings and goings of her sitters and the daily weather in her surviving diaries, which span several decades.
Thomas Cushing Burr (1823–1872) was the youngest of thirteen siblings. Bascom made portraits for many Burr relatives who moved to Bascom's town of Ashby in 1821. This portrait descended from the sitter to his great-great-grandson.
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RUTH HENSHAW BASCOM (1772-1848)
Thomas Cushing Burr
Ashby, Massachusetts, February 13, 1834
Pastel, chalk and pencil on paper, cut-out and applied to a blue-streaked background, 16 ½ x 12 ½ inches
