Frederick Nelson Atwood (b. 1867)
	 
Frederick Nelson Atwood was born in Boston, Massachusetts to parents Catherine M. and Frederick Nelson Atwood. His father was a prominent artist and decorative painter and young Frederick followed in his footsteps. He trained at art schools in the eastern United States, specializing in fresco and decorative arts for the theatre. He moved west in 1890 and his first job was decorating Ezra Meeker’s home in Puyallup, Washington.((Dawson City Museum, Frederick Nelson Atwood fonds.” Bio sketch, accession TD 994; 2006.33)) He lived in the Meeker Mansion for a year while he painted the ceilings.((The Puyallup Historical Society, “A Man Known Only By His Work; The painted ceilings in the Meeker Mansion.” 2019 website: https://meekermansion.org/history-meeker-mansion-oregon-trail/the-painted-ceilings/)) 
	 
In 1892, Atwood homesteaded on the Queets River on the Olympic Peninsula and then moved to Seattle, Washington, where he worked as an instructor at the YMCA. In 1895 he moved to Chicago, Illinois, resumed work as a decorator and married Mary C. Taylor of Seattle. In 1897 he headed north to the Klondike where, after several years of prospecting, he went back to the decorative arts. He went on a buying trip outside the Yukon and returned to Dawson in 1901 with Mary. Their first son, Frederick N. Atwood, was born in 1901 and they went on to have six children, four of them born in the Yukon. He and photographer George Cantwell formed a partnership. Atwood painted signs, designed and painted theatre sets, hung wallpaper, and did other interior decorating work. He was very active in Dawson’s theatre circle, associated with numerous productions at the Auditorium Theatre and lauded as a talented performer and athlete. Atwood was a member of the Arctic Brotherhood. He illustrated some published work of Robert W. Service. He and his family relocated to Seattle in 1912 where Atwood started the Hippodrome Amusement Company with several former Yukoners. He also took work with the New York Life Insurance Company.((Dawson City Museum, Frederick Nelson Atwood fonds.” Bio sketch, accession TD 994; 2006.33.))
	
The restoration of the Meeker Mansion ceilings started in 1972, and the original paintings were recovered over the next twenty years. The identity of the artist was unknown until 2000 when it was revealed to be Fredrick Nelson Atwood.((The Puyallup Historical Society, “A Man Known Only By His Work; The painted ceilings in the Meeker Mansion.” 2019 website: https://meekermansion.org/history-meeker-mansion-oregon-trail/the-painted-ceilings/))