Representative women of New England/Ellen A. Richardson
ELLEN A. RICHARDSON, artist, was born in Portsmouth, N.H., being a daughter of Oren Bragdon and his wife, Anna H. W. Bragdon. We are told that the first Bragdons in New England came over from England in their own vessels about the middle of the seventeenth century, .sailed up York River, and took up their abode in the town of York, Me. Some of the land of which they became the owners has never passed out of the possession of the family, and it is said to be a matter of record that no year has elapsed in which some Bragdon has not been serving the town in public office.
Mrs. Richardson is the wife of A. Maynard Richardson, of Boston. She was educated in public and private schools of Portsmouth, N.H., and the academy at Fryeburg, Me., pursuing special studies in art, in which she made great progress. After her marriage her life for many years was devoted chiefly to her family, the pursuit of art, however, absorbing much of her leisure. She was equally at home in the handling of oils, water-colors, pastels, and charcoal, engaging also in etching and the decoration of porcelain and clay under the glaze. Her proficiency in the last named line of work became such that in 1893 she received an appointment to serve at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago on the Board of Awards, in the Department of Manufactures from Clay, and at the close of the fair was appointed to prepare the official report of the potteries exhibit. In 1895 she was appointed to serve on the Jury of Awards in a similar position at the Atlanta Cotton States International Exposition. Also she was the only woman to sit with the Higher Board of Awards which held its sessions in the Smithsonian Institute at Washington.
Her ability to organize and conduct affairs of magnitude won a series of successes in popular and scientific lecture courses and departmental attractions during several successive seasons of the expositions in Boston of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association and in the home congresses held in Boston in 1896 and 1897.
Appointed during her connection with the Columbian Exposition as Massachusetts State President of the National Business League, Mrs. Richardson founded a State branch thereof. As President' of the Massachusetts Floral Emblem Society, she inaugurated the work of that society also, and developed it in a most diver- sifietl manner, resulting in the adoption by the Society, January 1, 1903, of the Mountain Laurel as the State flower.
While Mrs. Richardson was carrying out her aims in these directions, she became profoundly interested in the long-neglected bequest of Washington to the people of the United States, and from her study of the question she was led to inaugurate the movement for securing a fitting commemoration of the centennial of Washington's death and a public remembrance of his last will and his last gift to his people.
In warm appreciation of her three faithful and successful years of service in organizing and administering the affairs of the George Washington Memorial Association, friends of Mrs. Richardson, visiting the Cave of the Winds in South Dakota, considered among he most attractive of the wonders of the West, selected one of the finest of its beautiful stalactited chambers, and dedicated it with ceremony as the "Washington-Richardson Memorial." It may be noted that on retiring from the presidency of the Association, Mrs. Richardson was appointed honorary president, the first and only honorary officer the Association is to have.
The United States Geographical Survey of the Smithsonian Institution at Washington, named for her an island in the Arctic Ocean, this being in accordance with a precedent (established for her) for the recognition of notable services for education.
Mrs. Richardson is Cabinet Head of the Department of Art and Literature of the National Council of Women, for which she is planning most comprehensive and helpful work. She has been made chairman of a special committee to collect an exhibit of Art for the session of the International Council to be held in Berlin, Germany, in June, 1904, and has been aNo appointed one of the speakers at the Council. Her sympathies are broad, and with her untiring energy tend to keep her in touch with all that is best and most progressive in the world of womanly endeavor.