Entrance of Somes Sound from Southwest Harbor

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Entrance of Somes Sound from Southwest Harbor

Fitz Henry Lane painted one of the earliest views of Southwest Harbor, and seems to have studied the shore carefully.

The view shows a lumber schooner loading its long cargo through a port in the bow of the vessel.

The white house immediately to the left of the vessel probably shows an early version of the Seth Higgins Clark House.

The white house at the center of the shore is the Nathan Clark II House.

The white building at the far left is Deacon Henry Higgins Clark's Island House Hotel, early in its career, before it was expanded into several stories with a mansard roof. Clark descendants, and their houses, are still in Southwest Harbor.

William Howe Witherle (1821–1906) accompanied Lane on his trip around Mount Desert Island and recorded many of their adventures in his diary. On August 21 he wrote, "… George, Joe & myself took breakfast this morning at the Island House – and a fine one it was – price 25 cts – Mr. Lane took 2 sketches here…” The sketches referred to were of the shore and harbor, not the hotel.

See: Witherle, William Howe. William Witherle Diary (unpublished manuscript) (August 16–21, 1852). Personal diary in the collection of the Wilson Museum, Castine, Maine (A00060-1a-1h).

Southwest Harbor

ME

USA

1852