The Story of Ellen C. Kendall

At a recent estate sale, I had the opportunity to purchase a group of oil paintings. Emily and I have always been fascinated by Victorian art, especially that within the realm of oil painting. We prefer realism in most of our acquisitions, which sometimes means we can find beautiful pieces at low prices because this isn’t necessarily what people are looking for. However, I had a feeling that these oil paintings would be hotly contested, as they had a distinct look, were on the smaller side, were all signed, and clearly dated from the 19th century. Unfortunately, I wasn’t the only one interested, and after considerable bidding, I was able to procure all three. Later in the sale, I was offered some old paperwork that was going to be thrown away. It is well known that I love history and enjoy sifting through notebooks, letters, and documents of all kinds. I took the boxes home, thinking it would be a fun afternoon of reading someday in the future, and there they sat for a little over a week while we were in Colorado. Before leaving, I managed to establish who the painter was, as there was an inscription of E.C. Kendall etched at the bottom of one piece. Interestingly enough, after removing the back of another painting, I found a piece that was tucked behind it, also entitled E.C.K. This was a fascinating discovery that I didn’t have time to investigate further. Upon returning from Colorado, I began to look further into Ellen C. Kendall. Some of her work had been sold over the last 20 years, but she was relatively unknown in the art world. I was only able to find a few of her pieces, and the lack of information was slightly disappointing. Eventually, after scouring the internet and even looking into old newspaper archives, I settled on searching through my box of documents. After an hour of doing so, I discovered around 100 letters, all of which appeared to be from the mid to late 1800s. Upon carefully opening each one, I quickly realized that they were all addressed to an Ellen C. Kendall—the same individual who had painted two of the oil paintings I had acquired. As I sifted through the box further, I found even more fascinating documents and articles about her family, including one about her mother, who was born in 1806, remembered the War of 1812, had family members who fought in the Revolution, and lived to be 101, riding in her first vehicle just a year before her death. Uncovering more information, I stumbled upon countless sketches that Ellen had created, along with her Alumni Book from Ingham University, founded in 1835 as the first women’s university in the United States. The university eventually closed just before 1900, but in that book, I was able to ascertain that Ellen majored in painting.

“Ingham University (previously known as Attica Female Seminary and LeRoy Female Institute) was the first women's college in New York State and the first chartered women's university in the United States. It was founded in 1835 as the Attica (NY) Female Seminary by Mariette and Emily E. Ingham, who moved the school to Le Roy in 1837. The school was chartered on April 6, 1852, as the Ingham Collegiate Institute, and a full university charter was granted in April 1857. After financial difficulties, the college closed in 1892 and its property was sold at auction in 1895.”

The realization that I had stumbled onto a treasure trove of information wasn’t lost on me. It is rare to have anything beyond a signature and some small biographical details available when researching an artist. This was someone’s entire life laid out in front of me, with letters spanning nearly 50 years encompassing everything from friendships to love affairs. It was honestly beautiful and sad, considering that most of this would have been lost to the sands of time if I hadn’t taken the box on a whim. I spent much of the following days removing the letters and categorizing them, placing them in plastic sleeves where they will live while I better research the life of Ellen C. Kendall. Most of the cursive is nothing short of exquisite, but unfortunately, it’s incredibly difficult to read. So, I’ve been slowly deciphering it as I work through protecting each document. I don’t intend to let these oil paintings go anytime soon. However, I hope that one day, far from now, I’ll be able to give someone these paintings alongside the full story of Mrs. Kendall. She may not be well-known, but her story deserves to be told and preserved alongside her art. She will live on in these pages, and hopefully, with enough time, I’ll be able to transcribe her stories for others to read and enjoy.