Frost was born January 17, 1851, in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the eldest of ten children. His father, John Frost, was a historian, biographer and literature professor. At the age of fifteen, he worked as an intern at a local business that taught him engraving and lithography. He was mostly self taught but did study under
Thomas Eakins at the
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, with Gilbert Tucker Margeson in Massachusetts and with
William Merritt Chase at the
Shinnecock Hills Summer School of Art. In 1874 he was asked by a friend to illustrate a book of humorous short stories, "Out of the Hurly Burly", by
Charles Heber Clark, which was a commercial success and launched his illustration career. In 1875, he worked at
The Daily Graphic. He returned to Philadelphia and studied under painters
Thomas Eakins and
William Merritt Chase at the
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. In 1892, Frost partnered with Joel Chandler Harris and included his drawings of
Uncle Remus and
Brer Rabbit and other characters into the book
Uncle Remus and His Friend. Frost and Harris published several additional versions of the Uncle Remus books including
Uncle Remus: His Songs and Sayings in 1895 and 1898. Frost was influenced by the serial photography work of
Eadward Muybridge and translated his photographic approach to create successive illustration panels and dialogue which was a pioneering form of
comic strips and
comic books. In 1884, Frost published
Stuff and Nonsense, an anthology of his works that advanced the concept of time-stop drawings and contained other innovations. Although he was never published in newspapers, Frost's work was influential on newspaper comic strip illustrators such as
Rudolph Dirks and
Jimmy Swinnerton. Frost incorporated his interest in hunting, shooting and golf into multiple illustrations and publications. He was an avid golfer and a member of the
Morris County Golf Club in
Morristown, New Jersey, during the initial uptake of the sport in the United States. His sketches of golf players focused on the drama and passion of the players set in detailed backgrounds. His golf illustrations were included in ''The Golfer's Alphabet
(1898), The Epic of Golf'' (1923) and on two covers of
Collier's magazine. He was a member of the
Philadelphia Sketch Club, the
Society of Independent Artists and the
Society of Illustrators. ==Personal life==