Born in Chicago on 17 April 1869, George F. Schultz was taught by his father to love art and the beauties of nature. At age fifteen, he was known as a "decorator of souvenirs," perhaps decorative paintings on porcelain. Schultz would become a highly respected artist who exhibited over one hundred works at the Art Institute of Chicago annuals, between 1889 and 1925.

It was noted that Schultz spent part of 1895 on Monhegan Island, which artists had discovered in 1858. An exhibition of Schultz's watercolors of Monhegan scenery at Thurber's Gallery in Chicago in 1896 was reviewed in Arts for America. The author was particularly moved by "a huge, strongly painted rock enveloped in fog, c...