Frances E. Thompson was born July 11, 1896 in Springhill, Tennessee, the daughter of the late Archie and Harriet Neely Thompson. Miss Thompson’s early education was received from Nashville public schools and the academic department of the A. and I. State Normal School. She is a 1923 graduate of the Massachusetts School of Art, and a 1936 graduate of Radcliffe (Harvard) University where she received her Masters Degree in Fine Arts and Education in 1945.

Miss Thompson, a faculty member of Tennessee State University from 1923 to 1969 created artistic designs for all the programs for special occasions and the various publications of Tennessee A. & I. during the 1920’s and 1930’s.

She painted portraits of major Tennessee A. & I. personalities which appear throughout the buildings. Designs in terrazzo floors and reliefs on campus buildings are enduring mementos of her work. The most enduring of her works, is the school’s seal, which she designed in 1924, the same year the institution became Tennessee A. & I. State Teachers College.

In the early 1970’s The Frances Euphemia Thompson Art Gallery was dedicated in Boston, Massachusetts. Miss Thompson died January 30, 1992.