
James Earle Fraser
James Earle Fraser was born in Winona, Minnesota on November 4, 1876. He was the son of Thomas and Cora Fraser. Thomas Fraser was a railroad engineer. When James Earle Fraser was 1 year old, he moved with his family to Dakota territory where he saw Indians and frontiersmen which would later appear in his carvings. Sioux children taught him how to carve arrowheads. He began to carve sculptures in a quarry near where he lived. When he was 15, he began to study at the Art Institute of Chicago. Two years later James completed his first version of “End of the Trail”. It was his most famous statue. His prize-winning exhibit in the American Art Association Exhibition in Paris in 1898 brought him to the attention of the famous American sculptor, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, with whom he worked for two years. In 1907 to 1911 he taught at art students league in New York city.