Juliette May Fraser

Who was Juliette May Fraser?

Juliette May Fraser was an American painter, muralist and printmaker. She was born in Honolulu in 1887. After graduating from Wellesley College with a degree in art, she returned to Hawaii for several years. She continued her studies with Eugene Speicher and Frank Du Mond at the Art Students League of New York 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 Hawaiian Sesquicentennial Half Dollar, which was engraved by Chester Beach and issued in 1928. In 1934, during the Great Depression, Fraser was invited to create a work of art for the Hawaii State Library by the Works Progress Administration. 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 painted murals for the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition and the Ipapandi Chapel on Chios Island in Greece. She died in Honolulu in 1983.