Louis Rinaldo Ehrich papers

Louis Rinaldo Ehrich, son of Joseph and Rebecca (Sporborg) Ehrich, was born in Albany, N. Y., January 23, 1849. He was fitted for college in the Hopkins Grammar School, New Haven.

After graduation he traveled in Europe and studied in the University of Berlin a year, and was then a member of the dry goods firm of Ehrich Brothers in New York City until 1886. In August, 1878, he suffered a slight hemorrhage of the lungs, in consequence of which he spent a year in southern Europe. In the spring of 1880 his lungs were considered entirely healed, but the next fall he had several hemorrhages. He visited Aiken, S. C., and Europe, and from September, 1881, remained abroad for four years, spending the first three winters in Mentone, France, and the last in Davos, Switzerland. Soon after returning to New York in November, 1885, he found a climate suited to his health in Colorado, and from 1889 to 1905 made his home in Colorado Springs, where he was a leading citizen. He was vice-president of the Colorado Springs & Manitou Street Railway Co., the Manitou Mineral Water Co., and the Colorado City Land and Improvement Co., a director of the First National Bank, president of the Falcon Town and Land Co. and the Board of Trade of Colorado Springs, also of the Mozart Choral Society and the University Club of that city. He was a delegate to the Gold Democratic Convention in 1896, and was a national committeeman of his party. He was a member of the executive committee of the Anti-Imperialist League, and temporary chairman of the Third Party Convention in Indianapolis in 1900.

He published in 1892 a volume on "The Question of Silver," and wrote for The Arena of March, 1893, "A Religion for all Time," for The Forum of December, 1894, "Stock-Sharing as Preventive of Labor Troubles," besides other articles and addresses on economic and political questions. He was a delegate to the International Free Trade Congress in London in 1908, and in Antwerp in 1910, and was president of the American Free Trade League.

For many years he was a collector and dealer in old paintings, and in this capacity had earned a reputation for absolute honesty. As president of the Ehrich Galleries in New York City he made an annual tour to Europe in search of masterpieces of all schools. Many of those he gathered were of great value, and he had imported an especially large number of the works of the early Spanish masters. A collection of old Dutch paintings which he made was on exhibition in the galleries of the Yale School of the Fine Arts previous to its sale in 1894. In memory of the reunion of his class on its fortieth anniversary, he gave to the Art School a painting of the school of Paul Veronese.

As he was about to return from his annual tour Mr. Ehrich died suddenly of heart disease following an attack of asthma in London, England, October 23, 1911. He was 62 years of age.

He married in New York City, January 14, 1874, Henrietta, daugter of David and Caroline (August) Minzesheimer, who, with two sons and daughters, survives him. One son and one daughter are deceased. One of the sons graduated from the Sheffield Scientific School in 1899.

(Taken from Yale Obituary Record, 1912, pp. 230-232.)