R.B. Telescopic Graflex 4 x 5 View Camera Identified to Lieutenant Colonel Cushman A. Rice, US Army Air Service

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American History Auction

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Nov 18, 2016 - Nov 19, 2016

Set Reminder 2016-11-18 10:00:00 2016-11-19 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : American History Auction https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/cowans/american-history-auction-1870
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• Lot Description
  Folmer and Schwing "R.B. Telescopic Graflex" 4 x 5 box view camera signed on the inside of the curtain aperture, Lieut. Colonel/ Major Cushman A. Rice/ Air Service US Army Washington DC, accompanied by original 6.5 x 8 x 9 in. case stamped Folmer & Schwing Div./ Eastman Kodak Co./ Rochester, NY. With manuscript note on case's purple velvet lining again identifying the camera to Lt. Colonel / Major Cushman A. Rice Air Service/ US Army, Washington, DC/ USA. Equipped with Bausch & Lomb Tessar lens dated 1903. Appears to be complete, but the camera has not been tested to see if it is in working order. 
  
  Accompanied by 7.75 x 9.75 x 10.25 in. wood travel case signed on the handle by Rice, containing the original Auto Graflex operator's manual, Graflex Exposure Dial with original envelope, 6 plate holders with at least 3 produced by Contessa Nettel. A handwritten tag from Rice is also included, which we presume describes issues he was having with the camera offered here. He notes, in part: Col. C.A. Rice/ Willmar Minnesota/ to be overhauled and returned to above address. Bolts (?) are bad. top belt. Allows reel to spin droping [sic] film in front lenses, also breaking film...The lot also includes a 3-leg tripod, approx. 15 in. long, and two copy photos of Rice. 
   
  Colonel Cushman A. Rice was the most interesting man in the world. He was a quintessential soldier of fortune, globe-trotter, and big game hunter. Before the age of 18, Rice became a brigadier general in the Honduras revolutionary army. In the ensuing years, he served with Garcia as an officer in the Cuban revolution, later rising from private to captain in the American forces in the Spanish-American War. He fought in the Philippines and in the Boxer uprising in China. He enlisted as a private in World War I and in four months had risen to the rank of major in the air corps. He was the first American to command an aviation squadron of American pilots with the British Expeditionary Forces, flying American planes in France. One night Germans sent a gas barrage over his tent. Sleeping, he was unable to place his gas mask on in time to save himself from the devastating effects of gas. Horribly burned inside and out, his lungs almost completely disintegrated. He stayed in the hospital for five months in recovery until doctors sent him home to die. He survived and returned to Europe to continue to fight. Before he could reenlist, the Germans surrendered. After the Armistice, Colonel Rice was with the army of occupation and later went to Russia, Warsaw, and Odessa. He supervised 250,000 Russians in Constantinople. There he met Count Anatole Patapoff, a counter-revolutionist, and enabled him to come to Willmar, where he worked for several months in the Bank of Willmar, of which his father A. E. Rice was president. When he was not traveling, Colonel Rice divided his time between Cuba, in his Havana apartment or on his cattle ranch, and New York, at the Army and Navy Club. He built himself a summer estate on the northwest shore of Green Lake, MN where he spent more and more of his time. He threw lavish parties and bought expensive cars. Many speculated as to where his wealth came from. It most likely came from his father, a Norwegian immigrant who worked his way from a door factory worker to a successful Minnesota businessman. His faithful Chinese servant of thirty years, Lin Foy, accompanied him on his travels and was responsible for all the duties of the Green Lake summer home. Although Rice lived to the fullest, his war injuries often held him back. On September 4, 1932, Rice died from complications with his lungs when he was only 54. Honorary pallbearers at his funeral included Governor Floyd B. Olson, Earle Brown, Dr. William Mayo, and Otto Bremer. Rice never married and died childless. He left a large sum of money to build Rice Memorial Hospital in Wilmer, MN which still stands. 
   
  Rice's amazing life seems as if it were a work of fiction, and it might have inspired more than one character in a novel. He was the inspiration for the adventuresome character of "Captain Macklin" in a novel by Richard Harding Davis, who reportedly stated that in writing the book he "stepped on the soft pedal, because if I told the truth (about his life) the world wouldn't believe it in a novel" (findagrave.com). Author Dan Hardy speculated that his life inspired the character Jay Gatsby in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. "Gatsby kept his decoration in his pocket; Rice's was attached to his cigarette case. Gatsby's life in New York, his well-publicised parties and his fancy car share obvious similarities. Rice's past, like Gatsby's, was a mystery to many who knew him," argued Hardy along with other similarities (Andrew Wilson, The Australian, "Chasing the Real Gatsby," http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/chasing-the-real-gatsby/story-fnb64oi6-1226416974737). Fitzgerald was eleven-years-old when his family moved to Minnesota and would no doubt have seen articles on Rice's exploits. It is certainly possible that Gatsby was somewhat inspired by the local hero. Others still speculate whether or not this is true, but agree that Hardy offered strong arguments. 
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