James Earle Fraser

The son of a railroad contractor, James Earle Fraser was born in Winona, Minnesota, but was soon taken to Mitchell, South Dakota, where he spent his childhood. As a teenager he began his formal training at the Art Institute of Chicago before going to Paris in 1896 to enroll at the École des Beaux Arts. In 1898 an early model of what is now his most famous work, End of the Trail, was awarded a prize at the American Art Association exhibition in Paris. Fraser had begun work on the piece while still a student in Chicago and had brought it with him to Paris. After winning the prize, Fraser began working for the American sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, assisting him for two years in Paris before returning to New York with Saint-Gaudens and working for him for another two years. He taught sculpture at the Art Students League from 1907 to 1911 and then set up a permanent studio in Westport, Connecticut, in 1913. Fraser had a long career creating public sculpture throughout the country, taking commissions up until his death. He is best remembered for his 1913 design for the famous Buffalo Nickel and his monumental stucco version of End of the Trail that was displayed at the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exhibition in San Francisco, and is now installed at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.