George W. Rice

George Walter Rice (29 June 1855 – 9 April 1884) was a Canadian photographer who was first to photograph the Arctic region on the ill-fated American led Lady Franklin Bay Expedition of 1881 to 1884. Rice died in the Arctic on 9 April 1884 while awaiting the arrival of a relief vessel.

Early life and education George W. Rice was born on 29 June 1855, in Baddeck, Nova Scotia, to Joseph Frederick Rice and Mary Ann (Munn) Rice. After attending primary school in Baddeck and secondary school in North Sydney, Nova Scotia, he enrolled in Columbia University Law School in New York but never completed his law degree. He learned the trade of photography from his father who operated a photographic studio in Bridgetown, Nova Scotia, and his two uncles who were well-regarded photographers; Amos Ingraham Rice had a studio in Nova Scotia and Moses Parker Rice had a studio in Washington, DC. Rice gained experience as an arctic photographer on the 1880 Howgate Expedition to explore Greenland.

Lady Franklin Bay Expedition 1881–1884

Steamer Proteus in Arctic 1881George Rice was selected by expedition leader Adolphus Greely as the photographer for a planned expedition to the Arctic Ocean in 1881 after learning of his skill as a photographer in Washington DC. The expedition to Lady Franklin Bay on Ellesmere Island and points north was sponsored by the United States Army Signal Corps, so Rice, a civilian and the only Canadian on the expedition, was given the rank of sergeant.

Genealogy

Rice was a direct descendant of Edmund Rice, an early English immigrant to Massachusetts Bay Colony, as follows:

George Walter Rice, son of Joseph Frederick Rice (1831 – ?), son of Robert Muckford Rice (1805 – 1892), son of Beriah Rice Jr (1747 – 1818), son of Beriah Rice (1702 – 1764), son of Thomas Rice (1654 – 1747), son of Thomas Rice (1626 – 1681), son of Edmund Rice (1594 – 1663)