Ruth Henshaw was born in the town of Leicester in central Massachusetts. After her marriage to the Reverend Ezekiel Bascom she lived in the central Massachusetts towns of Phillipston and Ashby. “Aunt Ruth,” as she was affectionately known to family and friends, was a seamstress and milliner as well as a portraitist, creating life-size profile portraits using scissors, pastels, and watercolors. Her husband was born in Greenfield, Massachusetts, in the western part of the state. He had relatives in Greenfield and in neighboring Bernardston and Gill, providing a wide circle of patrons for his wife’s portrait work. Between 1819 and 1848, Ruth Henshaw Bascom traveled throughout New England, creating over one thousand portraits.