Frank Roy Fraprie was born July 14, 1874, in Fall River, MA, son of Stephen T. and Caroline M. (Goodrum) Fraprie. At the time of Fraprie’s birth, his father was a bookbinder.

Fraprie graduated from Harvard in 1898 and taught chemistry for two years - first at Chelsea, MA, High School and then the University of Illinois, IL. Following this he became principal of the Steep Brook School in Fall River for a year before returning to Harvard for graduate work in chemistry and crystallography, then continuing his studies at the University of Munich in Germany. He moved to Boston, MA, in 1901 and joined the staff of Photo Era before becoming a part owner and editor of American Amateur Photographer in 1905. Two years later, through a merger, the magazine was reborn as American Photography, which quickly became the leading American photography periodical. By the time it stopped publication in 1953 it had absorbed sixteen other photographic magazines and was the longest running magazine of the genre.

Fraprie gained controlling interest in American Photography in 1927 and became editor of the American Annual of Photography the same year. In his dual roles he wrote innumerable editorials, reviews, commentaries, and articles and was immensely influential in standardizing salon guidelines and the tabulation of exhibition records worldwide. Fraprie wrote numerous technical monographs, a small series of travel books, and in 1906 acquired Bubier’s Popular Electronics, changed the name to Electrician and Mechanic, and became its editor. Also, according to his listings in the Boston Directory, circa 1927 he was involved with an enterprise called the Fall River Tube Co., making paper tubes.

Fraprie had received a camera for his twelfth birthday and by 1902 was creating and exhibiting artistic photographs and corresponding with Alfred Stieglitz. In the mid-1920s his output began to increase and at his peak he was showing more than 300 prints at seventy-five international salons. His most successful photograph was Warmth of the Winter Sun. In the ten years after it was first exhibited, it had been accepted by 218 juries.

During his life Fraprie was honored by many photographic societies. In the 1920s he was head of the Photographic Guild of the Boston Society of Arts and Crafts and regional vice-president of the Pictorial Photographers of America. He was a charter member of the Photographic Society of America, which awarded him an Hon. FPSA. He was similarly honored by the Royal Photographic Society of England, of which he was a member and medalist, and received a gold medal from the Vienna Photographic Society in 1933 for preeminent achievement. He also translated several books on photography from German and French. He was listed in Who’s Who in America, 1948-1949.

He married Mary Otis Sampson on Sept. 16, 1911, in Brookline, MA. He was thirty-seven and she was forty-one. They were both working as publishers. The marriage does not seem to have lasted as by 1920 Mary was living alone in Brookline running a Beacon Street boarding house while Frank was living in their original home on Addington Rd, Brookline. He married Edith Marjorie Russel Purchase January 21, 1928, in Boston. She was born in St. John’s, New Brunswick, May 13, 1890, and was a private secretary when she came to America in late August 1919. By the time they were married she listed her occupation as magazine editor. 

Around 1930 they began spending their summers on Rocky Neck in Gloucester, MA, and became friends with resident artists such as Emile Gruppe and the photographer Eleanor Parke Custis who wrote ‘The Photographic Art of Frank R. Fraprie’ in the special issue of American Photography produced upon his retirement in December 1949. Fraprie died on June 20, 1951, in Brighton, Massachusetts.

Brief description: This collection contains 13 large framed photographs (since unframed for safer storage) many with exhibition stickers adhered to their backs, 24 unframed photographs (20 of Warmth of the Winter Sun), 3 metal awards/medals, a scrapbook of the Editor’s Point of View by Frank R. Fraprie from Jan. 1942 to Dec. 1949, the Dec. 1949 issue of American Photography magazine dedicated to Fraprie’s influence on, and contribution to photography, and a small paperback titled Practical Printing Process, Mr. Fraprie ed., 1936

13 Framed photographs - unframed size in brackets

1. Warmth of the Winter Sun (17” x 14”)

2. Exploring (14” x 11”)

3. Muse Waiting aka Ready for the Sitting (17” x 14”) [this photo was taken in Emile Gruppe’s studio on Rocky Neck]

4. Upon a Painted Ocean (17” x 13”)

5. The Old Wharf, Rockport (17” x 14”)

6. Secured (16” x 13”)

7. Sun Gleams and Mist (14” x 11”)

8. Seine Boats (16” x 12”)

Unframed photographs

9. Winter Farm (15.5” x 11.5”)

10. Gloucester Harbor (16” x 12.5”)

11. The Converted Fisherman (14” x 9.5”)

12. Alice (16.5” x 12”)

13. Rocky Neck (16” x 12.5”)

14. So This is Venice (20.5” x 16” matted)

15. Ready for the Sitting (14” x 10.5”) 3 copies

16. Warmth of the Winter Sun (14” x 10.5”) 6 copies - 4 sepia toned

17. Warmth of the Winter Sun (8” x 10”) 14 copies

Exhibition stickers glued to the photograph backs. (The number indicates to which photo they apply.)

4. Amherst Camera Club, Amherst, MA; Quincy Camera Club, Quincy, MA; Kodak Camera Club, 1937-38; Arts Club of Washington; The Miniature Camera Club, New York, NY; Lancaster Camera Club, Lancaster, PA; Apalachian Mountain Club, Boston, MA; The Syracuse Camera Club, Syracus, NY; The Cleveland Photographic Society, Cleveland, OH; The Photographic Arts Society, Inc., San Diego, CA

6. Photo Club of North Adams, North Adams, MA; Harrisburg Camera Club, Harrisburg, PA; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA; Camera Club of New York, NY, 194-; The Cleveland Photographic Society, Cleveland, OH; Indianapolis Camera Club, IN; Dixie Camera Club, Tampa, FL; Baltimore Camera Club, Baltimore, MD; Jackson Park Camera Club, Chicago, IL; Pueblo Camera Club; Bennington Camera Club, Bennington, VT; Gary Works Camera Club, Gary, IN; Akron Camera Club, Akron, OH; Metropolitan Camera Club Council, New York, NY; The Miniature Camera Club, New York, NY

11. Camera Club of New York, NY, 194-; Metropolitan Camera Club Council, New York, NY; The Miniature Camera Club, New York, NY; The Cleveland Photographic Society, Cleveland, OH; Baltimore Camera Club, Baltimore, MD; Gary Works Camera Club, Gary, IN; Pueblo Camera Club; Indianapolis Camera Club, IN; Jackson Park Camera Club, Chicago, IL; Dixie Camera Club, Tampa, FL; Photo Club of North Adams, MA; Bennington Camera Club, Bennington, VT; North Shore Camera Club, MA; Akron Camera Club, Akron, OH; Harrisburg Camera Club, Harrisburg, PA

14. Amherst Camera Club, Amherst, MA; Kodak Camera Club, 1937-38; Syracuse Camera Club, Syracuse, NY; Quincy Camera Club, Quincy, MA; Arts Club of Washington; Lancaster Camera Club, Lancaster, PA; Miniature Camera Club, New York, NY, 1935-36; Appalachian Mountain Club, Boston, MA; Photographic Arts Society, Inc., San Diego, CA.

15. Internationale Udstilling of Billedmaessig Fotografi, Danmark, 1948; The Bristol Salon of Photography, 1948; Associazione Fotografica Italiana, Torino, Italy, 1948; CS Association, 1949 (rejection)

16. Southampton Camera Club, 1947 Seal of Merit; International Focus Fotosalon, Nederland, Amsterdam, 1947; Birkenherd Photographic Association, 1947; Sociedade Fluminense de Fotografia, Brasil, 1948; Falmouth Camera Club, 1946; Associazione Fotografi Professionisti di Bologna, 1948; Soc. Fluminense de Fotografia, Niteroi

16. [sepia] Lucknow International Salon of Photographic Art, 1948; Scottish Salon, Aberdeen, 1948; Exposition Internationale, Belgique, 1949

One framed portrait of Mr. Fraprie (9” x 11.5”)

One tag: Accepted & Hung, 12th South African Salon of Photography, South Africa. No. 76 Warmth of the Winter Sun Honours Diploma.

The first page of a printed article by Mr. Fraprie on his photograph ‘Warmth of the Winter Sun.’

Three boxed awards

1. Harvard Camera Club, 1889, medal hung from red grosgrain ribbon. Reverse: First Prize, 1902 (4.5” x 2.5”)

2. Rectangular silver colored metal plaque Swedish Master Competition, 1948. Second Prize (2.5” x 3”)

3. Rectangular bronze colored plaque Focus Fotosalon, Free Netherlands, 1946 (2.5” x 3”)

Hard bound ‘Book Shelf Scrap Book’ containing Editor’s Point of View a monthly article by Mr. Fraprie from the American Photography magazine from Jan. 1942 to Nov. 1949, interspersed with additional loose magazine pages covering an annual photographic competition run by the magazine.

American Photography magazine Dec. 1949, special issue on his retirement as editor: The Photographic Art of Frank R. Fraprie by Eleanor Parke Custis.

Paperback Practical Printing Process, Mr. Fraprie ed., 1936