[1] She and her sister, Mary Electa Allen (1858–1941), were schoolteachers, who left teaching when they became deaf in their thirties.
"[3] Many of their idyllic images harken back to an idealized version of the region's colonial history.
In 1899, the Allen sisters joined Deerfield's Arts and Crafts Movement, and began to document the works of its earliest members.
[4] In 1907, Frances Allen was elected Director of the Society of Deerfield Industries.
She attended Deerfield Academy and then the State Normal School teacher's college in Westfield, Massachusetts.