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Rice, Moses P., photog.; Albert Operti, artist.

Rescue at Camp Sabine, or Clay, June 22d 1884 at 11 O’Clock. [manuscript title]

Washington D.C.: Rice, photo., 20 July 1885. Albumen print, 9.125” x 16.5”, mounted on paperboard; mount size, 15.5” x 21.5”. Manuscript title and inscription on the mount below the image. Label of Washington, D.C.photographer Moses Rice on verso.CONDITION: Very good, light brown streak through left side of image and mount.

A rare photograph of an official painting by artist Albert Operti depicting the rescue of the surviving members of the Greely Arctic Expedition, inscribed by expedition survivor Sergt. Francis Long. 

This image shows the rescue of members of Adolphus W. Greely’s ill-fated and grueling Lady Franklin Bay expedition. In 1881, Greely led a twenty-five man U.S. Army expedition to the Arctic, establishing Fort Conger, a scientific observation compound, at Lady Franklin Bay. Following a season of meteorological and tidal observations, the party retreated southwest to Cape Sabine, where they were to rendezvous with a relief expedition. However, heavy ice prevented the relief ship from reaching the Cape, with the same thing occurring the following year. A rescue ship did not arrive until June 1884. Only Greely and five other men would survive—the rest perished from starvation, drowning, hypothermia and even an execution Greely himself ordered. The six survivors returned home as heroes, but accusations of cannibalism soon followed; Greely denied any knowledge of such activities. While the expedition turned into a disaster, Greely’s party nevertheless reached farther north than any known previous Arctic expedition, made important scientific observations, and undertook extensive mapping of the then-mostly unknown northern parts of Greenland. Operti’s painting of the rescue was undertaken with the assistance of three of the surviving members of the expedition: First Lieutenant Adolphus Greely, Sergeant David L. Brainard, and Private Henry Biederbick. 

The present photograph of Operti’s painting is inscribed by survivor Sergt. Francis Joseph Long (1852–1916). His inscription reads “Compliments of Sergt. Francis Long Greely Arctic Exp. to Dr Ed. Grether Brooklyn E. D. at May 27th 86.” Long, who was born in Wurtemberg, Germany, served in the U.S. Army in the west, where he is said to have been one of the last soldiers to see Lieutenant Colonel George Custer alive at Little Big Horn, and participated not only in the Greely Expedition but also served as the meteorologist to the Baldwin-Ziegler Polar Expedition to Franz Josef Land in 1901-02 and the Ziegler Polar Expedition of 1903–05. As a member of the Greely Expedition, Long was a hunter and cook, and likely was involved in the compilation of meteorological data as well, given his later activity in that capacity. Long named his son Adolphus, after his former commander, and his daughter Cape Sabine.  

Born in Italy, artist Albert L. Operti (1852–1927) trained in the United Kingdom and immigrated to the U.S. in the later nineteenth century. A painter, sculptor, and illustrator, he worked as a scenic artist for the Metropolitan Opera and painted dioramas for the American Museum of Natural History. Operti also took a lively interest in Arctic exploration and created a number of paintings depicting important incidents and scenes in Arctic history, as well as portraits of Arctic explorers. He served as the official artist for Robert E. Peary during his 1896 and 1897 Arctic expeditions, creating paintings and drawings, and also making plaster casts of the Inuit for the Museum of Natural History.

Photographer Moses P. Rice (1839–1925) was born in Canada and immigrated to the U.S. In 1865, he and his younger brother Amos I. Rice (1850–1912) established a photo studio in Washington, D.C. Rice’s name is most closely associated with Alexander Gardner’s so-called Gettysburg portrait of Abraham Lincoln. Rice somehow obtained a copyright for the image (some believe that he worked for Gardner for a time), copies of which he printed into the 1920s.

An evocative photograph showing the rescue of the Greely party, inscribed by one of the expedition survivors.

REFERENCES: Capelotti, P. J. Papers of Greely survivor Francis Joseph Long (1852-1916), at Cambridge University Press online; Stein, Glenn M. “An Arctic Execution: Private Charles B. Henry of the United States Lady Franklin Bay Expedition 1881—84.” Arctic, December 2011, Vol. 64, No. 4, pp. 399-412; Wamsley, D. “Albert L. Operti: Chronicler of Arctic exploration” (2016). Polar Record, 52(3), 276-293. 

Item #8102

Price: $2,500.00