ELLEN CLAPSADDLE

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. 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 post cards first began to be published and exclusively by Wolf. Few women were hired as full time illustrators during this period. Ellen began producing post cards 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 post card industry. Ellen invested heavily into German post card industries upon the advise of the Wolf brothers who did the same. The company was doing so well they sent her to Germany to work with the 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.

Ellen Clapsaddle in a photo at the Richfield Springs Seminary, where she graduated in 1882. Her success as a commercial illustrator would come to a sad end. (Photo courtesy James Parker)

Former Herkimer County resident Ellen Clapsaddle knew how to describe children and holidays. A well-regarded artist active during the early 1900s, she illustrated holiday postcards and greeting cards that are now prized by collectors. She wrote her own poetry and was a successful businesswoman.

But there is a sad side to the story of Ellen Clapsaddle, who was born in 1865 in South Columbia, Herkimer County, a little north of Richfield Springs and famous in her time for illustrations of Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s.

According to James Parker of Ilion, one of Clapsaddle’s descendants, Ellen created more than 4,000 images of children in holiday moods and published millions of postcards.

“She is credited with putting the first smile and red cheeks on old Kris Kringle and turning him into the Santa Claus we know today,” Parker said. “She also designed the first snow babies in the late 1800s.”

Postcards remain popular in vacation and tourist spots. During the early 1900s, Parker said, their popularity was immense. Sending cards was almost a national craze.

“That was an era when the postcardBUSINESS was one of the biggest businesses in the printing world,” Parker said. “If you got on your horse and buggy and went 10 miles to the next town, the first thing you’d do is go to a general store and buy a postcard and send it back to your friends and relatives to let them know you’d traveled.”

It’s ironic that a woman who depicted happy times — Clapsaddle also illustrated Christmas, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, Memorial Day and other party days on the calendar — would experience a reversal of fortune. Parker, a cousin, tells her story.

Ellen’s first lessons were learned in a one-room school in Columbia.

“There was no high school,” Parker said. “If you finished the one-room school, your parents would send you to board at a near town that had an academy.”

That happened in Ellen’s family. She was an only child and studied at the Richfield Springs Seminary, graduating in 1882. Her father later passed away, and she and her mother moved to Richfield Springs.

Ellen’s artwork made an impression on principals from Horrocks-Ibbotson, a Utica-based company that manufactured fishing reels. She did illustrations for the company’s catalog, Parker said, and the company decided to send the young artist to the well-regarded Cooper Institute in New York City.

After graduation, she returned to Richfield Springs and taught art. She made new fans when she sent two illustrations to International Art in New York City, which became best sellers for the firm.

Her career really picked up when she began an association with the Wolf brothers, whose company was an outlet for International Art. She eventually became art director and was a partner at the Wolf Company shortly after the turn of the 20th century.

Parker said four-color printing was rare during the early 1900s. If the process was done, it was in Germany. The Wolfs and Clapsaddle purchased a bussines overseas.

Tragedy of war

“In that plant, they printed three and a half million postcards,” Parker said. “Then World War I occurred. The Wolf brothers were in New York and Ellen was managing the plant [in Germany]. They firebombed it during World War I and she lost everything, including all 4,000 of her original paintings. And no one heard from her from 1916 until 1919, when the war was over.”

One of the Wolfs — the company later would go out of business because of the war losses — traveled to Germany to search for Clapsaddle. The then middle-aged woman eventually was found wandering the streets, hungry and sick. She had experienced a mental breakdown.

Wolf and Clapsaddle returned to the United States. Ellen, who had no close relatives, began a modest living in New York City. She became obscure.

But her postcards were still out there. They had been mailed to people all over the world.

Michael Shor, who owns Wolf Creek Paper Antiques in Madison, N.J., and was in town last weekend for the Albany Antiquarian Book Fair, has her cards in stock. He said folks began collecting them during the 1940s.

“All you have to do is look at the cards from Ellen Clapsaddle and you would recognize that Ellen Clapsaddle’s art is — in the words that are often used to describe music and its melody — easily accessible,” Shor said.

“You don’t have to appreciate anything about art to look at Ellen Clapsaddle’s postcards and say those are very nice. She had a wonderful way of portraying children in their innocence. Everything is beautiful and clean and crisp, the lines are very well drawn. You can recognize an Ellen Clapsaddle postcard from 10 paces away, it stands out from all the rest.”

Shor will sell some Clapsaddle cards for under $10. Some of the Halloween creations are worth $1,000 or more.

“Halloween is the most desirable holiday of all the holiday greeting cards, not just Ellen’s, just Halloween,” he said. “Halloween is the rarest of greeting cards, more sought after than Christmas and Easter and Thanksgiving.”

One reason — fewer Halloween cards were sent. Another reason — Halloween is the flip side of Easter and Christmas angels, Shor said. “This is black cats and witches and skulls and graveyards, everything mean and nasty,” he said.

Clapsaddle cards and other documents from the past are still being found in attics, old books and trunks. “They come out of people’s estates,” Shor said. “That’s where you find them.”

Billy Parrott, managing librarian for the art and picture collections at the Mid-Manhattan Library in New York City, is also a Clapsaddle fan. The library has examples of her work in its collection.

“She had this knack for distilling the essence of a particular theme, a holiday, and distilling it into this perfect gem-like memorable image that was instantly recognizable,” Parrott said.

Innovative artist

She was also innovative. Evelyn Edwards of Clinton in Oneida County, who collects Clapsaddle and has given lectures on the artist’s career, said “mechanical” versions of Ellen’s Halloween cards are hard to find.

“She has four especially,” Edwards said. “There’s an arm over the child’s face that’s holding a pumpkin and covers the face of the child.”

The pumpkin moves and reveals the face. “Those are very pricey,” Edwards said.

People paid for them. Parker said that at one time, Clapsaddle was very wealthy.

“In a sense, it’s an inspiring story for young girls who come from a humble background,” Parker said. “She was a millionaire at 32 and lost everything.”

And by drawing and painting children of 100 years ago, Parker said, Clapsaddle also contributed to history. He said children’s fashions and social activities are represented on the cards, along with the greetings.

In 1932, Ellen was admitted to the Peabody Home, a residence for the indigent. She died on Jan. 7, 1934, one day short of her 69th birthday.

Parker said one of her last wishes — communicated through a letter to family members — was to come home and be with her parents.

“They did that,” Parker said. “They brought her back and she’s buried in Lakeview Cemetery in Richfield Springs.”

"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 post cards first began to be published and exclusively by Wolf. Few women were hired as full time illustrators during this period. Ellen began producing post cards 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 post card industry.  Ellen invested heavily into German post card industries upon the advise of the Wolf brothers who did the same. The company was doing so well they sent her to Germany to work with the 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 ofBUSINESS or were severely financially handicapped.

The Wolf brothers were among them and 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 Wolf Company folded.


"MY HEART LIKE A CHILD..."