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Mr. & Mrs. Baxter were considerably more than collectors. Their small but important collection  of paintings was an expression of their interest in Canadian history and the growth of a national consciousness in the early years after Confederation; the three Fraser works are prominent in this regard. This point is further shown in the two autograph car-touches illustrated below, which include signatures of several key artists in the Canadian tradition, as well as the Knowles and Caron images of an iconic Canadian subject -  logging in the winter.

In the spring on 1888 Fraser returned to Britain, visited Scotland and  Kent, then worked on his pictures in London until his health failed in  the summer of 1889. The Royal Academy of Arts accepted one of his Scottish water colours for  their 1889 exhibition. Fraser and his wife then settled in New York City, and in 1890 he began to exhibit at the Society of American Artists, the New York Watercolor Club and the National Academy of Design. He mostly showed his British water colours but included a few American subjects. He also exhibited in Boston and Canada, and in 1891 at the Paris Salon. He was on the board of the New York Watercolor Club in 1893–94, and of the American Watercolor Society in 1894–95. Some of his work was auctioned in Toronto in October 1897. Fraser passed away in New York City on January 1st 1898.

Unfortunately few of Fraser's paintings have survived. Some are held by the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa), and smaller collections are held by the Beaverbrook Art Gallery (Fredericton), Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Art Gallery of Hamilton (Hamilton, Ontario), Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto Reference Library, Museum London (London, Ontario) and the Glenbow Museum (Calgary).