Alexander H. Rice, Jr.

Alexander Hamilton Rice, Jr. (b. August 29, 1875, Boston, Massachusetts – d. July 21, 1956, Newport, Rhode Island) was an American physician, geographer, geologist and explorer. He graduated from Harvard University in 1898 with an A.B. degree, and earned his medical degree (M.D.) in 1904 also at Harvard. He was professor of geography at Harvard University from 1929 to 1952, and served as the founder and director of the Harvard Institute of Geographical Exploration.^[1]

Early life and military service

Rice was the grandson of former Boston Mayor, Massachusetts Governor and U.S. Congressman Alexander Hamilton Rice. He was born and raised in Boston, attended the Noble and Greenough School and educated at Harvard University.^[2] In 1915, he married the widowed RMS Titanic survivor, Eleanor Elkins Widener. During World War I, he volunteered for overseas service with the surgical staff of the Ambulance Americain in Paris, France (1914–1915). From 1915–1917, he served as the director of Hôpital 72, Societe de Secours aux Blesses Militairs, also in Paris. On the entry of the United States into the War in 1917, he was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the United States Naval Reserve Forces, and was assigned as the director of the 2nd Naval District Training School for Reserve Officers at Newport, Rhode Island, where he served until 1921.^[3] After the War, he was awarded the Commandeur de la Légion d'honneur for his service to the People of France. On 7 Nov 1922, Rice ran as a Republican for U.S. Congress in the Massachusetts 12th Congressional District, but was defeated by Democrat James A. Gallivan.^[4]

Exploration and academic career

In 1929, Rice founded the Institute of Geographical Exploration (IGE) at Harvard University and he and his wife, Eleanor Elkins Rice, provided a considerable endowment to maintain the institute. As a geographer and explorer, he specialized in rivers.^[5] On seven expeditions to South America, he explored over 500,000 square miles (1,300,000 km²) of the Amazon Basin. On one trip (1924–25), he ascended the Orinoco River to its headwaters, traversed the natural Casiquiare canal, and descended the Rio Branco to the Amazon at Manaus. It was the first expedition to use aerial photography and shortwave radio for mapping.^[6] While under the directorship of Rice, the Institute for Geographical Exploration became a major center for the science of photogrammetry or map making from aerial photography. Rice's professional accomplishments also included: Curator of the South American Section of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology; Lecturer in Diseases of Tropical South America at Harvard Medical School; and Trustee of the American Museum of Natural History. Upon the closing of IGE in 1952, Rice retired to Miramar,^[7] his wife's family mansion in Newport, Rhode Island, where he died in 1956.

Genealogy

Alexander H. Rice, Jr. was a direct descendant of Edmund Rice, an English immigrant to Massachusetts Bay Colony, as follows:^[8]

• Alexander Hamilton Rice, Jr., son of

• John Hamilton Rice (1849 – 1899), son of
• Alexander Hamilton Rice (1818 – 1895), son of

• Thomas Rice (1782 – ca1859), son of
• John Rice (1751 – 1808), son of
• Elijah Rice (1728 – ?), son of
• William Rice (ca1700 – 1769), son of

• Edmund Rice (1653 – 1719), son of
• Edward Rice (1622 – 1712), son of

• Edmund Rice (1594 – 1663)

References