Mary Isabel Ellis Basten papers
Scope and Contents
This collection consists primarily of the courtship letters of Mary Isabel Ellis and Austin Slausen Basten, who married in 1912, as well as the former's diaries from 1905 through 1922 and part of 1926. There is also correspondence that post-dates the marriage and some letters from friends and other family members, as well as photographs, scrapbooks, memorabilia, writings, and biographical information.
Dates of Materials
- 1837 - 2005
Creator
- Basten, Mary Isabel Ellis, 1886-1975 (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for use without restriction beyond the standard terms and conditions of Smith College Special Collections.
Conditions Governing Use
The Sophia Smith Collection owns copyright to the unpublished works of Mary Basten in this collection. Permission must be obtained to publish reproductions or quotations beyond "fair use." Copyright to materials created by others may be owned by those individuals or their heirs or assigns. It is the responsibility of the researcher to identify and satisfy the holders of all copyrights.
Biographical / Historical
Mary Isabel Ellis ("Mibs") was born in New York City to Isabel Fitch Ellis and Wesley Ellis. She graduated from Kingston Academy in Kingston, New York in 1905. After teaching for a year in a one-room schoolhouse in Kripplebush, New York to help finance her college education, she entered Emerson College in 1906. Emerson was a three-year college at the time and she graduated in 1909, majoring in English and dramatics. She then taught at the Bloomsburg State Normal School in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania until marrying Austin Basten, in 1912. Austin Basten was a businessman who worked with various firms until starting his own business. The couple had three children: Louis Bevier, David Ellis,and Mary Esther. They lived in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Hartford, Connecticut and Indiana before retiring to Lynchburg, Virginia. Basten did some writing, including a brief account of having seen the Panama Canal under construction, and gave occasional talks on various topics; she was also active in local garden clubs. In 1972, the couple moved to their daughter's home in Old Greenwich, Connecticut.
Extent
7.376 linear feet (9 containers)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
Teacher; Homemaker. Collection consists primarily of the courtship letters of Mary Isabel Ellis and Austin Slausen Basten, who married in 1912, as well as the former's diaries from 1905 through 1922 and part of 1926. There is also correspondence that post-dates the marriage and some letters from friends and other family members, as well as photographs, scrapbooks, memorabilia, writings, and biographical information.
Arrangement
This collection has been added to over time in multiple "accessions." An accession is a group of materials received from the same source at approximately the same time.
Other Finding Aids
One or more content listings to individual accessions in this collection are available for download. Links can be found in the description of the individual accessions.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The Papers of Mary Isabel Ellis Basten were donated to the Sophia Smith Collection by her granddaughter, Jean Krogh (Smith 1969) in 2010 and 2011.
Processing Information
Accessioned by Burd Schlessinger, January 2011
Processing Information
Between September 2022 and February 2023, Smith College Special Collections renumbered many boxes to eliminate duplicate numbers within collections in order to improve researcher experience. The following changes were made in this collection: Accession 2011-S-0004, Box 1 renumbered as Box 8
- Basten, Austin Slausen
- Basten, Mary Isabel Ellis, 1886-1975
- Biographical sketches
- Courtship -- United States -- 20th century
- Emerson College -- Students
- Rutgers College -- Students
- Teachers -- United States
- Writings
- Young women -- United States -- Diaries
- correspondence
- diaries
- memorabilia
- photographs
- scrapbooks
- Title
- Mary Isabel Ellis Basten papers
- Subtitle
- Finding Aid
- Status
- Legacy Finding Aid (Updated)
- Date
- 2012
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Revision Statements
- 07/26/2017: This resource was modified by the ArchivesSpace Preprocessor developed by the Harvard Library (https://github.com/harvard-library/archivesspace-preprocessor)
- 2017-07-26T17:48:21-04:00: This record was migrated from InMagic DB Textworks to ArchivesSpace.
- 2021-07-02: Content description added from accession inventories
- 2021-07-20: Content description added from accession inventories
Repository Details
Part of the Sophia Smith Collection of Women's History Repository
