TidesNet—Online Collections Entry Detail

DescriptionA photograph portrait by Boston based photographer, William Lyman Underwood, of the well known Passamaquoddy guide, Joe Mell. It dates to about 1895 and was taken in northern Washington County, Maine where Mell used to guide Underwood on his annual hunting and fishing trips to the area for about 30 years. This photograph of Joe Mell is one of 13 photographs in the Tides Institute’s collections taken by Underwood during his trips to northern Washington County in the early 1890s. The photographs were obtained over several years from a collector in California. Underwood was born in Belmont, Massachusetts in 1864 into the wealthy Underwood family that had founded the William Underwood Company, an American canned food company, in 1822. William Lyman Underwood and his brother Loring were at the forefront of nineteenth-century nature photography. Loring trained his camera on human designed parks and gardens, while William concentrated on the wilds of the northeastern U.S. Their work is described in the book Gentlemen Photographers: The Work of Loring Underwood and Wm. Lyman Underwood published in 1987. Joe Mell, whose mother was French and father was Passamaquoddy, became a popular guide around the wilderness forests and lakes of northern Washington County. Mell was extremely well-versed in the ways of the Passamaquoddy. In 1927, William Underwood published the book, Wilderness Adventures, that describes his experiences with Joe Mell. Underwood died in 1929. Photo caption: Portrait photograph of Passamaquoddy guide, Joe Mell, by photographer, William Lyman Underwood that dates to about 1895. Artist: William Lyman Underwood Medium: Photograph Circa: 1896 Old Accession Number: 604 Description: Joe Mell, Passamaquoddy Guide at Duck Lake