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John Bascom

American academic administrator (1827-1911)

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionFeb 21, 2026
Entity authorityQ6220990
Source-derived summary

John Bascom (May 1, 1827 – October 2, 1911) was an American professor, college president and writer.

Life

He was born on May 1, 1827, in Genoa, New York, and was a graduate of Williams College with the class of 1849. He graduated from the Andover Theological Seminary in 1855. Aside from the degrees he received in those places, he held many other scholarly and honorary degrees. He was professor of rhetoric at Williams College from 1855 to 1874, and was president of the University of Wisconsin from 1874 to 1887. He retired in 1903 and died in Williamstown, Massachusetts, on October 2, 1911.

Authoring between 30 and 40 books over his lifetime, Bascom later claimed that their writing cost him more than they earned in sales revenue. However, his biography expressed pride at their impact on others.

He influenced future Progressive Governor of Wisconsin and U.S. Senator Robert M. La Follette Sr. during the latter's studies in his youth at the University of Wisconsin.

Editorial summary

“John Bascom” enters the record as american academic administrator (1827-1911). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what John, Bascom and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1827, 1911, 1849, 1855—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1827-05-01, 1827-01-01—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. Its strongest next move is a source search built around John, Bascom and American.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“John Bascom” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, John, Bascom and American provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6220990. VIAF identifies the subject as 27240971. The Library of Congress control number is n85363345. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1827, 1911, 1849 and 1855.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from John Bascom” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.