Samuel L. Frazer was born in 1866 in White Lake, New York. He received his artistic education at the Art Students’ League and the Adelphi Academy in New York. He studied under noted artists John Twachtman, J. Carroll Beckwith, and Willard Leroy Metcalf. After relocating to the Boston area, Frazer established himself as a professional painter, photographer, and art school instructor.

Frazer married fellow artist Gertrude Hamlen. In 1909, Gertrude purchased a home on Savin Hill Avenue in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, MA. The couple raised two children there — a daughter named Gertrude and a son named John. Samuel and Gertrude Frazer remained in their family residence near Denny Street for the remainder of their lives.

Professionally, the couple formed a joint business venture known as the Frazer Company, in Boston. The firm was locally promoted as “commercial artists and dealers in art novelties.” In 1907, the company specialized in hand colored bromide prints and operated from Room 707 at 18 Summer Street. By 1911, the business had relocated to Room 13 on Bromfield Street, where Samuel advertised his services as an “air brush artist” in local newspapers. Business activities at this location, including photographic negative enlargements, continued through at least 1914. By 1917, the enterprise had moved to Room 48 at 110 Tremont Street, where it developed a niche producing hand colored miniature portraits for soldiers’ lockets.  The establishment was also heavily involved in selling air brush systems, replacement components, and art supplies. The Frazer Company continued operations until declaring bankruptcy in April 1929.

Samuel Frazer was a charter member of the Brooklyn Pen and Pencil Club and a member of the Boston Art Club. He was an early pioneer in the field of airbrush art and in 1915 published a technical manual on the subject, Treatise of the Air Brush. In 1943, he became an instructor at the Scott Carbee School of Art in Boston and remained associated with the school, teaching classes until at least 1952. In addition to teaching, Frazer authored numerous technical articles for art and photography periodicals.

As a fine artist, Frazer worked in oil, watercolor, crayon, pencil, gouache, charcoal, pen and ink, and mixed media. His subjects included landscapes, seascapes, animal scenes, still lives and portraits. His known White Mountain works include: Carter Ridge From Gales Bridge, Jackson, NH; Dixville Notch, NH; Saco River in Crawford Notch, and The Old Man of the Mountain.

Frazer exhibited at the New York Academy of Design and the Boston Art Club, where his oil painting Passing Storm was offered for sale at the price of $75.

Following a month long illness, Samuel L. Frazer died on January 2, 1954. Funeral arrangements were handled by J.B. Cole and Gleason Funeral Home, and he was interred at Cedar Grove Cemetery in Dorchester, MA.

References
Atwood Oakes Fine Art
Independent research by the authors
Smithsonian Archives of American Art

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