George Canning Wales was born in Boston and studied architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He operated his own architectural firm from 1893 to 1924. Wales studied etching with William Paxton, produced his first work in 1917, and mounted his first exhibit at Goodspeed's Book Shop in 1921. Wales became an adept lithographer in the early 1920s. His prints are in the permanent collections of many museums and institutions including The Boston Public Library, Library of Congress, the New York Public Library, The British Museum, and the Victoria and Albert Museum.