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Ellen Clapsaddle

By Alexandra Rudenko
Contributing Writer
The Daily Star, New York

Clapsaddle was born in South Columbia, New York, in 1865. The farm was settled by the Klepsettle family in 1737. The German name was later changed to Clapsaddle. During the Revolution, all residents had to leave and in 1779, the Indians burned down the log cabin.

That was when Ellen Clapsaddle's family moved to safety at Columbia Center. Ellen grew up in that community and attended a one-room schoolhouse until eighth grade. She then boarded in Richfield, which had an academy that could prepare the young lady for college.

Clapsaddle attended Cooper Institute in New York City. For several years, she worked out of an art studio in downtown Richfield Springs and painted portraits and landscapes for local wealthy families. She then made some postcards and sent two to New York City. They became bestsellers and the publisher asked her to move to the city in 1890.

Clapsaddle designed about 2,000 postcards, which she signed, and then there were many that she did not sign so they can't be directly attributed to her. Because the best printing plants were in Germany, Clapsaddle lived in Berlin until World War I. The factory where her work was stored was eventually bombed and all her work was lost.

That's why there are very few paintings or original prints that have survived and Clapsaddle is mostly known today for her postcards.

Clapsaddle returned to the US with meager funds and lived modestly in New York City. Upon her death in 1934, an appeal was made in Richfield Springs to help fulfill her dying wish to be buried in Lakewood Cemetery. Local generosity made this possible, and the artist is buried next to her parents.

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