The work of sculptor James Earle Fraser, adorning many of Washington's most iconic structures, includes: The Authority of Law and The Contemplation of Justice, U.S. Supreme Court; south pediment and statues, National Archives; Music and Harvest and Aspiration and Literature, Arlington Memorial Bridge; Alexander Hamilton and Albert Gallatin, U.S. Treasury; and the Second Division Monument. His commissions also include coins and medals such as the Victory Medal, Navy Cross, and Indian head (Buffalo) nickel. Among his earliest work were sculptural pieces at the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893 and, for the San Francisco Exposition in 1915, one of his most famous pieces, End of the Trail. Fraser was influenced by his classical training at the Art Institute of Chicago, completed in 1890, and his studies at the …cole des Beaux-Arts and AcadÈmie Julien in Paris in the late nineteenth century. Early in his career, Fraser served as an assistant to Richard Bock and Augustus Saint-Gaudens; he formed his own studio in 1902. He also taught at the Art Students League in New York City beginning in 1906, and later became its director. Fraser was a member of the National Academy of Design, the National Sculpture Society, and the Architectural League. His numerous awards and honors include election to the National Institute of Arts and Letters and a gold medal from the Architectural League in 1925. The papers of James Earle Fraser and those of his wife, sculptor Laura Gardin Fraser, can be found in the Special Collections Research Center at Syracuse University Library and at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art.
CFA Service:
1920–1925