Juliette May Fraser (January 27, 1887 – July 31, 1983) was an American painter, muralist and printmaker. She was born in Honolulu, which was then the capital city of the

Kingdom of Hawaii The Hawaiian Kingdom, also known as the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian language, Hawaiian: ɛ ɐwˈpuni həˈvɐjʔi, was an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country from 1795 to 1893, which eventually encompassed all of the inhabited Hawaii ...

. After graduating from

Wellesley College Wellesley College is a Private university, private Women's colleges in the United States, historically women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henr ...

with a degree in art, she returned to Hawaii for several years. She continued her studies with Eugene Speicher and Frank DuMond at the

Art Students League of New York The Art Students League of New York is an art school in the American Fine Arts Society in Manhattan, New York City. The Arts Students League is known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists. Although artists may study f ...

and at the John F. Carlson School of Landscape Painting in Woodstock, New York. She returned to Hawaii to teach, like her parents who had both come to Hawaii as educators. Fraser designed the Hawaii Sesquicentennial half dollar, which was sculpted by Chester Beach and issued in 1928. In 1934, during the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

, Fraser was invited to create a work of art for the Hawaii State Library by the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; from 1935 to 1939, then known as the Work Projects Administration from 1939 to 1943) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to car ...

. For three months she received $35 a week to work on the project. When the funds ran out, she continued on her own until ten murals were completed. Fraser also created murals for the 1939

Golden Gate International Exposition The Golden Gate International Exposition (GGIE) was a World's Fair held at Treasure Island in San Francisco, California, U.S. The exposition operated from February 18, 1939, through October 29, 1939, and from May 25, 1940, through September 29, ...

(now installed in lobby of the Hamilton Library,

University of Hawaii at Manoa A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...

) and the Ypapandi (or Ypapanti) Chapel on Chios Island in Greece. She died in Honolulu in 1983. The

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF), comprising the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park and the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park, is the largest public arts institution in the city of San Francisco. FAMSF's combined attendance was 1,1 ...

Hawaii State Art Museum The Capitol Modern Museum, formerly (until 2023) named the Hawaii State Art Museum, is a small art gallery located on the second floor of the No. 1 Capitol District Building in downtown Honolulu, Hawaii, United States. Long known as HiSAM, the m ...

, Hawaii State Library,

Honolulu Museum of Art The Honolulu Museum of Art (formerly the Honolulu Academy of Arts) is an art museum in Honolulu, Hawaii, Hawaii. The museum is the largest of its kind in the state, and was founded in 1922 by Anna Rice Cooke. It has one of the largest single co ...

, Isaacs Art Center,

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

(Washington, D. C.),

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is an art gallery, art museum in Kansas City, Missouri, Kansas City, Missouri, known for its encyclopedic collection of art from nearly every continent and culture, and especially for its extensive collection of A ...

(Kansas City, Missouri) and

are among the public collections holding works by Juliette May Fraser.

References

* Armitage, George Thomas, ''Ghost dog and other Hawaiian'', illustrated by Juliette May Fraser, Honolulu, Hawaii, Advertiser Publishing Co., 1944. * Colum, Padraic, ''At the gateways of the day'', with illustrations by Juliette May Fraser, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1924. * Colum, Padraic, ''The bright islands'', with illustrations by Juliette May Fraser, New Haven, Yale university press, 1925. * Department of Education, State of Hawaii, ''Artists of Hawaii'', Honolulu, Department of Education, State of Hawaii, 1985, pp. 23–30. * Forbes, David W., ''Encounters with Paradise: Views of Hawaii and its People, 1778-1941'', Honolulu Academy of Arts, 1992, 210-247. * Fraser, Juliette May and Katherine B. Allen (interviewer), "Juliette May Fraser", The Watumull Foundation, Oral History Project, Honolulu, 1979. * Haar, Francis and Neogy, Prithwish, ''Artists of Hawaii: Nineteen Painters and Sculptors'', University of Hawaii Press, 1974, 58-65. * Hartwell, Patricia L. (editor), ''Retrospective 1967-1987'',

Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts Hawaii ( ; ) is an island state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only state not on the North American mainland, th ...

, Honolulu, Hawaii, 1987, p. 33 * Honolulu Academy of Arts, ''Juliette May Fraser, A Retrospective Honoring the Artist's 85th Year'', Honolulu Academy of Arts, 1972. * Morris, Nancy J
"The Murals of Ipapandi Chapel, Chios: A Cultural Bridge Between Greece and Hawai'i"
''The Hawaiian Journal of History'', 1994. * Morse, Morse (ed.), ''Honolulu Printmakers'', Honolulu, HI, Honolulu Academy of Arts, 2003, pp. 23, 47 & 53, * Papanikolas, Theresa and DeSoto Brown, ''Art Deco Hawai'i'', Honolulu, Honolulu Museum of Art, 2014, , pp. 74–75 * Pratt, Helen Gay, ''The Hawaiians: an island people''. Drawings by Rosamond S. Morgan and Juliette May Fraser, Rutland, Vt., C. E. Tuttle Co., 1963. * Pratt, Helen Gay, ''Outdoors in Hawaii''. Illustrated by Juliette May Fraser, New York, Scribner, 1948. * Radford, Georgia and Warren Radford, ''Sculpture in the Sun, Hawaii's Art for Open Spaces'', University of Hawaii Press, 1978, 92-93. * Sandulli, Justin M., ''Troubled Paradise: Madge Tennent at a Hawaiian Crossroads'', Durham, NC: Duke University, 2016. * Slabaugh, Arlie, "Hawaiian Sesquicentennial Half Dollar", ''Numismatic Scrapbook'' Magazine, August 20, 1960, 2462. * Yoshihara, Lisa A., ''Collective Visions, 1967-1997'', An Exhibition Celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, Art in Public Places Program, Presented at the

Honolulu Academy of Arts The Honolulu Museum of Art (formerly the Honolulu Academy of Arts) is an art museum in Honolulu, Hawaii. The museum is the largest of its kind in the state, and was founded in 1922 by Anna Rice Cooke. It has one of the largest single collectio ...

, September 3-October 12, 1997, Honolulu, State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, 1997, p. 18. {{DEFAULTSORT:Fraser, Juliette May Wellesley College alumni Art Students League of New York alumni Artists from Honolulu John F. Carlson School of Landscape Painting alumni Hawaiian Kingdom artists 1887 births 1983 deaths Works Progress Administration workers Painters from Hawaii American women printmakers Printmakers from Hawaii 20th-century American painters 20th-century American women painters 20th-century American printmakers American coin designers

References

Further reading