"Sketch taken at Spider Lake -- the horizontal distances and vertical Height are from instrumental measurements."

The Talcott survey, headed by Capt. Andrew Talcott, was sent out to map the northern boundary of Maine after hostilities broke out in 1839 between settlers in the Madawaska region around the St. John River.

"Artists accompanied the survey and used an apparatus called a camera lucida. Suspended over a sheet of drawing paper, the camera lucida, by means of a prism, projected an exact outline of a particular view onto the paper, which could then be traced. Later, the line drawings were embellished with watercolor."- from Barry, William and Geraldine Tidd Scott. "Charting a wilderness. Rare drawings of the trackless North Woods resurface after 150 years." Downeast Magazine, June 1995. p. 59-60.

The original painting is held at the National Archives, Washington, D.C.