The author Thomas Sedgwick Steele and a cadre of explorers investigated parts of Northern Maine in 1879. Afterward, he wrote a book about their findings.

This map's full title is "Map of Moosehead Lake and the headwaters of the Penobscot River prepared expressly for Thomas Sedgwick Steel's 'Canoe & Camera' by W. R. Curtis C.E."

The map appears on page 32 of the book 'Canoe & Camera or two hundred miles through the Maine forests' by Thomas Sedgwick Steele, NY, Orange Judd Co., 1880.