Frances Flora Bond Palmer (July 24, 1812 - August 20, 1876) was an American artist active in the mid-19th century. Palmer, or 'Fanny' as she was known, is considered the first female professional artist in the United States and is best known for her work with Currier and Ives. She was born 'Frances Flora Bond' in Leicester, England. She studied at the Mary Linwood school for ladies, receiving an excelling private school education. She married Edmund Seymour Palmer, a gentleman's manservant, in 1832. Edmund lost his work several years later and in 1842 the couple partnered to open a lithography firm. Fanny was the artist and lithographer, and Edmund worked as the printer. They produced several local interest views, but this business ultimately failed. The couple moved to the United States in 1844, settling in New York. There, they established F. and S. Palmer, another lithographic company, which also failed. It has been suggested that the repeated business failures were due to Edmund's excessive drinking. In 1851, Fanny took work with Nathaniel Currier (1813 - 1888) and continued with the company after 1857, when it became 'Currier and Ives'. They grew to become the most successful publisher of lithographic prints in mid-19th century America. Fanny was their top artist, producing more Currier and Ives’ prints than any other. She was the primary breadwinner of her family and when Edmund died after drunkenly falling down a flight of stairs, she was left alone to raise her children, an event Nathaniel Currier described as the 'best thing that ever happened to her'. She retired from Currier and Ives in 1868, aged 66, her images among the most popular and stunning of that firm's prodigious corpus. She died of tuberculosis on August 20, 1876 and was buried in the Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.