Frances Holmes Boothby (1919–2000) was an American designer who created modernist jewelry. Her work spanned the period from the mid-1940s to the early 1980s.

After graduating from Iowa State College, she worked as an art and physical education teacher.

In the mid-1950s, she taught jewelry making at the Birchkill Arts and Crafts Guild and the Emma Willard School in Troy, New York.
By the late 1950s, she had established a small silversmithing studio in Weston, Vermont.
She died in 2000 in Sedona, Arizona.

Most of her jewelry was made of sterling silver, but gold, brass, wood, resin, natural stones, pearls, and glass were sometimes used. Her work often features motifs related to nature: animals (birds, deer, tigers), and children’s book characters (Tigger, Ayor, Piggy).
She also created jewelry in abstract styles, such as earrings with atomic stars and examples with swirls or cross-shaped patterns in the design.
Bracelets are usually simple modernist bundle-style designs or cufflinks in polished silver.

The signature on the jewelry is STERLING (upper letters) and fhb (lower letters).

Exhibitions

In 1948 and 1955, Frances Holmes Boothby’s work was featured at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
In 1956, the designer’s jewelry was exhibited at the Museum of Glass at the Corning Glass Center.
In 1959, Boothby received an honorable mention for jewelry shown at the New Orleans Art Association’s 50th Annual Spring Exhibition.

One of Frances Holmes Boothby’s jewelry pieces is now in the permanent collection of the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, Connecticut.

The designer’s work can be found in the collections of modernist and vintage jewelry enthusiasts, as well as in national art galleries.