The Lelia Bascom Papers primarily document her interest in Bascom family history.
Information about her professional career and years of service to various social action
organizations in Madison is absent from the collection. Also useful are detailed expense
records that she maintained from 1909 through the 1950s.
The papers are arranged alphabetically by subject.
Concerning the Bascom family the papers include "A Genealogical Record of the Russel Bascom
Family," a narrative history she compiled in 1949. In addition there are a few photographs
and a folder of family correspondence. The majority of this consists of letters from her
father, William Russel Bascom, an employee of the Illinois Central Railroad, to his mother.
This correspondence dates from the 1860s to the 1890s, and it primarily concerns family life
and his religious views. Also present are extensive genealogical notes and a Spanish
language primer written in Mexico by Burton Bascom, Jr.
Lelia Bascom's own correspondence primarily consists of cards and letters received during
the last year of her life, and a few letters about her received by Professor Francis Hole,
who apparently administered the Bascom memorial fund established by the Madison Friends.
These letters are the best source in the collection for understanding Bascom's position in
the community. The correspondence to Bascom includes some letters from relatives and one
printed Christmas letter from Walter and Mary Jo Uphoff.
The annual expense ledgers date from 1909, when she was a young teacher, through the 1950s.
The ledgers record individual expenditures within broad categories such as clothing,
entertainment, car fare, etc. During the World War I period she inventoried her winter and
summer wardrobes in these volumes, and later she began recording detailed information about
her charitable donations. Complementing the expense volumes is a 1912 scrapbook of clippings
and handwritten information that document her interest in economical housekeeping.
Several folders document Bascom's general interests such as aging and travel in England. Of
special interest, although its presence is not fully explained by internal evidence, is
information and floor plans she collected on low cost housing during the 1940s.
