Ellen H. Clapsaddle 1865-1934

"MY HEART IS A CHILD". These words were taken from a poem Ellen Hattie Clapsaddle once wrote to her mother. Ellen was born January 8, 1865 in South Columbia, New York, about 200 miles from New York City. She was shy and delicate and loved to draw and illustrate. Her young life was very uneventful but filled with her art which, until her death, expressed an innocence and joy of life that a sense of child-like happiness emitted from her deep within.

Ellen graduated from Richfield Springs Seminary, New York, in1882 and followed with a couple of years at the Cooper Institute in New York City for art training. Then she returned home and placed an ad in the local paper announcing she was offering painting lessons in her home at South Columbia.

When Ellen's father, Dean, died in 1891, Ellen and her mother moved in with an aunt in Richfield Springs. She spent her next 14 years teaching art lessons to people. Ellen started doing illustrations, landscapes, portraits, and some free lance work through the mail. International Art Company purchased several of her designs.

After the purchase and use of several of Ellen's designs, International Art offered Ellen a paid two year trip abroad for her and her mother. There she would study and refine her art talents at the parent company and be closer to the actual manufacturer of paper goods.

The Richfield newspaper announced the display of some of her work locally, especially a 1900 calendar. She received praise for "its daintiness, originality and little verses illustrative of her drawings." International Art used her designs where they appeared on Valentines, booklets, water-color prints, calendars and trade cards.

It would be the Wolf Company, an outlet for International Art, that would hire her when she got to New York around 1906. That's when her postcards first began to be published and exclusively by Wolf. Few women were hired as full time illustrators during this period. Ellen began producing postcards under Wolf's name and became their sole artist and designer.

Ellen was forty years when she accepted the full time position with Wolf Company. She had been free lancing for International Art, along with several other artists, for six years.

During the eight years with Wolf, her success had reached such a peak that there seemed to be no limit to the growth potential for her, the company, or the postcard industry. Ellen invested heavily into German post card industries upon the advice of the Wolf brothers who did the same. The company was doing so well they sent her to Germany to work with their engravers.

In August 1914, Ellen was in Germany and got caught up in the outbreak of World War 1. Factories were burned, records destroyed, and messages never received. It wasn't long before she became a displaced person, penniless and alone in a foreign land.

In the meantime, back in the States, the Wolf brothers had been cut off from supplies coming from Germany and most firms went out of business or were severely financially handicapped.

The Wolf brothers were among them and were completely wiped out. One of the brothers borrowed the last bit of money left and went to Europe in search of Ellen.

Six months later, Ellen was finally found. She was walking the streets, hungry, sick and alone at the age of fifty-one. She barely recognized Mr. Wolf when he approached her.

Wolf brought her back to New York where he could take care of her. She no longer had the ability to earn a living and her health declined rapidly.

Her mother died while Ellen was in Europe and Mr. Wolf died desolate and poor a few years after bringing her back. No one knows how long she lived alone mentally incapacitated.

On January 27, 1932, Ellen Hattie Clapsaddle was admitted to the Peabody Home on Pelham Parkway in New York City. Ellen had lost all mental reason and sat and played with toys until her death two years later.

January 7, 1934, one day short of her 69th birthday, Ellen Hattie Clapsaddle died. She died penniless and alone with no record of her accomplishments.

Ellen never married, had no sisters or brothers, and spent one half of her life illustrating for a small group of people. Her talent started to be recognized ten years after her death. It wasn't until after World War II that she would find her resting place next to her parents in Lakeview Cemetery in Richfield Springs. Her marker is at her feet and simple says, "ELLEN." International Art Publishing continued to produce Clapsaddle cards after the Wolf Company folded.