Frank Shapleigh is best known for his well-executed White Mountain, New Hampshire landscapes that include all of the major tourist attractions as well as places that had special, personal, meaning for him. He painted Mount Washington and the other well-known mountains from dozens of different locations, and because he wrote the location of his paintings on the back of the canvases, his paintings provide an invaluable record of his works.

He was born in Boston and studied there at the Lowell Institute of Drawing. When the Civil War broke out, he enlisted in the Union Army and served from 1862-63. He then studied art in Paris with Emile Lambinet and then returned to the United States to establish his studio in Boston. In 1866, he first visited the White Mountains, where he spent most of his summers and built a home studio in Jackson.

He also painted in Florida, California, and Europe. From 1877 to 1894 he was artist-in-residence at the Crawford House in St. Augustine, Florida, where he wintered at the Ponce de Leon Hotel.