Frances B. Pierce (1868-1954) The following data, submitted December 2010, is from Mary Beckman, whose grandfather was a cousin to the artist. 

According to my mother who knew her, she was single and spent the school year in New York City as an art department head for the New York City School Department. She summered in Dunkirk, NY and painted numerous scenes around western New York and Pennsylvania. 

My mother remembers her traveling to Europe several times to paint landscape scenes (one of my mother's paintings from Frances Pierce is labeled on the back as "Loch Maree, Scottish Highlands). 

A family archive source of the artist had the following:  Note: "Miss Frances B[eaulah] Pierce, Retired Teacher, Is Recognized As One of America's Eminent Painters", being listed in "latest edition" of "Who's Who in American Art" according to a lengthy article and photo of her in Dunkirk (N.Y.) Evening Observer, Saturday, August 7, 1937. 

She died on September 8, 1954 in Dunkirk, New York, and is buried with my mother's family in Fredonia, New York, the town next to Dunkirk.