Sydney Fromkes, born 1910, was a student at the New York School of Fine and Applied Art who studied under Frank Alvah Parsons. While at the school in 1926, he briefly wrote reviews for the “The Leveler,” what is believed to be a student-faculty publication of the time. He died in 1927 at age 17 of unknown causes, shortly before he was supposed to travel to Paris to study. His uncle, Maurice Fromkes, was a notable Polish-born portrait and landscape painter in the United States. Sources:

“Maurice Fromkes, Noted Painter, Dies”. The New York Times. September 18, 1931. Accessed June 11, 2024. https://www.nytimes.com/1931/09/18/archives/maurice-fromkes-noted-painter-dies-polishamerican-artist-won-a.html?smid=url-share

American artist William Merritt Chase established Parsons School of Design in 1896 as the Chase School of Art. While founded as a school of fine arts instruction, it soon added courses in applied arts, which became the primary focus under the administration of Frank Alvah Parsons (1908-1930). The name of the school changed several times, to the New York School of Art in 1902, then to the New York School of Fine and Applied Art in 1909. In 1909, the school was located at 2237 Broadway, in New York City's Upper West Side. In 1940, the Board of Trustees voted to change the school's name to Parsons School of Design in recognition of Frank Alvah Parsons's leadership and to differentiate it from other, similarly named institutions.

In 1921, Parsons School of Design's European School opened with headquarters in France called the Paris Ateliers. The Ateliers closed in 1939 due to the escalation of World War II, and never reopened in its pre-war form. Summer study tours of Europe resumed in the late 1940s. Parsons School of Design merged with the New School for Social Research in 1970. As of 2023, Parsons is one of seven colleges and programs at The New School.