Her father, Robert Bond, had been a prosperous lawyer and left an ample legacy to his children, who grew up very well off.

In 1942, Peters wrote that the reverse in their fortune caused the family to turn to their artistic talents as a means of earning a living.

As an artist-printer team, the Palmers began a series of topographical prints under the title of Sketches of Leicestershire.

Sometime between June, 1843, and January, 1844, the Palmers and Frances' siblings, Robert and Maria, decided to leave England to emigrate to New York in the United States.

By moving to a new country, Frances and her family hoped to effect a change in their financial circumstances and to find a better outlet for their artistic talents.

[2] Then living in Brooklyn, Palmer taught singing, painting, drawing and wax flower making and worked as a governess and chaperone.

Among her subjects were rural farm scenes, famous American ships and architecture, hunters, and Western landscapes.

A notable example of these prints during her time with Currier and Ives is her highly regarded series of six bird hunting scenes.

Each medium-folio print is labeled "Drawing from nature and on stone by FF Palmer", and was priced at two dollars at the time of its publication in 1852.

Depictions of landscapes were no longer as popular as prints involving people, and according to Louis Maurer, one of Palmer's colleagues, her inability to draw the human figure was her only flaw.