Printmaker and photographer Eleanor Rappe Raugust was born in Brooklyn, New York, on February 14, 1933. She received her B.A. from Brooklyn College. After obtaining her MFA in printmaking at San Francisco State University, where she studied with James Torlakson, Eleanor began to explore a number of printmaking techniques, including chine collé, collagraph, etching, monotype, and three-dimensional forms. She later turned to digital arts.

Eleanor Rappe was a member of the San Francisco Society of Women Artists and was President of the California Society of Printmakers. She also developed collaborations with fellow Bay Area printmakers, including the late Eleanor Bender, with whom she collaborated on an exhibit in 1977, at the De Young Museum, entitled Caerulea: ruins and excavations.  

In 1975, after teaching at the Graphic Arts Workshop for several years, Rappe founded the Fort Mason Printmakers program. Under her direction, the Fort Mason Printmakers published one themed portfolio of color etchings each year, with text written by Rappe as well as her own etching contribution. She was the chair of the art department at City College of San Francisco before retiring in 1994 and moving to Santa Fe. In the Southwest, she continued to be involved in arts scene.

Rappe’s work is included in the collection of the Janet Turner Print Museum, University of California, Chico; the Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts; the Portland Art Museum, Oregon; the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, California; the San José Museum of Art, California; and the United States Embassy in Moscow, among others.

Eleanor Rappe Raugust passed away on 6 April 2021 in Santa Fe, New Mexico.