He is dressed more like a gentleman-rambler-poet than a farmer. Note his cap, his somewhat formal matching coat, his vest, his staff, a pocket handkerchief, and the flowers in his lapel (and probably in his right hand).

The scene is full of rustic detail. The rock seat in the foreground seems to have been left for contemplation of the landscape, for the verges are otherwise cleared of obstructions to permit ease of mowing. The mower left flowers beside the rock. Horses, though halted at the moment of the photograph, are mowing the side-hill hayfield. The steeper slopes above are pasture. (Surprisingly, I can't see a stone wall anywhere.) The house in the center looks abandoned, for the windows are out and its chimney has fallen. In the house on the right, though, the farmer's wife appears to be industrious, for her laundry and her garden so testify. None of the houses appear to be painted. The serious notch beyond is romantically gloomy though the upper glen appears to be peopled. The well-traveled, back-country road winds steeply but invitingly out of sight.

This rustic-ruin scene is so photogenic that it must have been well-known to artists and photographers. I attach below the comments I have received:
 

Responses:

I have been gratified to receive responses from the Thoreau Society listserve and others. There have been no suggestions about the location or the photographer. Some noted, with reservations, a resemblance to nature writer John Burroughs (1837-1921), who is associated with the Catskills, rural New York state, and the Hudson Valley. And one suggested a resemblance to his son Julian (d. 1954). And some doubted both John and Julian.

When I first received the suggestion of Burroughs, I remembered my shelves held some volumes of my grandmother's old Riverby Edition of his writings. I found a frontispiece showing an older Burroughs that did resemble the mystery man.

I then stopped by the Thoreau Society's excellent Henley Library in Lincoln MA and looked at some of their material. I found photographs of John Burroughs with similar articles of dress (i.e., the same-style soft caps, dark blazer-coats with lighter trousers and vests, flowers on lapel, and a breast pocket handkerchief) but no walking staff. In his younger years, he did dressed well, brought well-tailored clothes back from England, and was a lady's man, but he came to prefer rumpled, country clothes and a rougher image. His hair was worn longer as the years passed. Some of these photos can be found here. Publicity photos often accompanied his magazine articles, but Burroughs photos from the critical years of the 1880s and early 1890s were not available to compare with this somewhat dapper, apparently youngish-featured, yet white-haired, mystery man. Could this be Burroughs or is it simply a look-alike who had been posed by an enterprising photographer?

One of my correspondents, the one who thought John's son Julian Burroughs was a possibility, wrote:

"I have been trying to convince myself that the man in your photographs is none other than John Burroughs, but on closer examination he looks more like his son Julian Burroughs. Refer to the following photos in books by/about Burroughs: HUDSON RIVER MEMORIES, Julian Burroughs, Page 65; JOHN BURROUGHS' SLABSIDES, Elizabeth Kelley, page 105; HARVEST OF A QUIET EYE, Charles F. Davis, page 51." [ed.: I have posted two photos of Julian.]

Another intelligently skeptical correspondent wrote:

"Regarding your interesting mystery photo, I would be very surprised if it were John Burroughs, as someone suggested. I have never seen his hair that trimmed, even as a younger man. By the way there are some good photos of Burroughs throughout his life in Ed Renehan's biography available at the Concord Library. The other interesting thing about the photo (and, another reason why I don't think it is Burroughs) is the very tailored appearance of the gentleman's clothing. Burroughs often wore a coat and vest while sauntering, but he could never seem to hide a frumpy appearance. This was true even at formal occasions. I can't think of a single photo of Burroughs where he didn't appear wrinkled.

"The gentleman in your photo seems much more creased, with a more finely tailored coat. Also, Burroughs was known to wear a similar style cap on occasion but it wasn't his favorite for being out and about. He preferred a well-worn, partially crushed fedora style. The cap in this photo actually appears more British than similarly styled American caps which were usually made slightly wider and bulkier (a "newsboy" style as they were often called).

"Another interesting feature of the photo is, as you mentioned, the house on the left that appears to have been abandoned. Yet, the smaller house directly across the road seems to remain occupied. It still has nine over nine windows, which were often replaced during the Victorian era with two over two sash. However, the latest fashion trend in windows was slow to make its way to poor rural areas. For a family that is still obviously engaged in farming, there appears to be no barn. Cut hay is still being stored as a rick out in the open.

"Thus, I suspect the setting to be a poorer rural area. The hills certainly remind me of VT or NH. As for the gentleman, I wonder if he could be a visitor from abroad?"

On June 5, 2001, a Burroughs biographer was kind enough to add his comments:

"Dear Steve,

"Browsing the Internet I ran across your query as to your 'mystery photograph' and whether it is John Burroughs. I'm the author of the biography one of your correspondents references: John Burroughs: An American Naturalist.

"Looking at the photograph, I think I can tell you categorically that it is not Burroughs's son Julian. Julian always wore a beard throughout his life, but always kept it close cropped even as an old man. He never let it grow longer than the length shown in the pic you have of him as a young man. (He died in 1954, by the way. He was a gifted writer in his own right, although he rarely bothered to publish. Also a fine landscape painter, photographer and architect. He spent his life, however, in agricultural pursuits along the banks of the Hudson River, where he also fished for shad in season. I'm sure he was the only Harvard-educated shad fisherman out there.)

"As to whether the pic is Burroughs, I can't say categorically that it is not, however I doubt that it is him. As one of your correspondents has correctly noted, Burroughs most frequently favored fedoras. He also was not one for walking sticks. On the other hand, the cut of the nose looks similar to JB and of course the beard is much like his. But another strike against the photo being JB is how neat and well turned out the fellow looks. JB was not one for style, and most often looked a bit tussled.

"I hope this helps. You'll find a few more pics of JB that you might find of interest at the url <http://users.ids.net/~ejren/After.htm>.

All best, --- Ed Renehan
Edward J. Renehan Jr.
<http://renehan.net>"

Summary (Nov. 17, 2001):

FAILURE. I have learned the identity of neither the man nor the place.

But the search has been interesting because it introduced me to Burroughs. Biographer Ed Renehan, in the web page cited above, well describes the experience of modern environmental activists in reading Burroughs:

"They found something less in Burroughs: a gentle voice singing the praises of woodlands and the rural way of life, but generally stopping short of demanding that the bulldozers be turned back.

"Given all this, what is it that redeems Burroughs? Why is he worth reading, studying, remembering? The answer is straightforward enough. In the tradition of his two great heroes Emerson and Whitman, Burroughs helped point the way for people of modern times to find personal redemption and transcendence through a life lived closed to and in sympathy with nature. In a time of decaying creeds, Burroughs proposed an essentially religious philosophy of nature meant to free people from the cynicism of the industrial age, rendering them content to accept the universe and their part in it. In the midst of the Gilded Age, an era of institutionalized harshness, Burroughs articulated a hopeful, sane prescription for personal salvation."

Attached is a page showing images of John Burroughs from the Henley Library and other sources. In his younger and middle years, the pictures show a fine-featured and nattily dressed man. (He was, after all, an auditor and bank examiner until 1886.)  He liked to put aside his tailored clothes in the country. Especially in the last decades of his life (1900-1921), the images that the photos create is that of a bushy-bearded, tanned-face, rumpled nature-sage.

But this may not accurately reflect his appearance at the time he started his full-time literary career in the 1880s. The pictures I have found of Burroughs in 1870s-1881, as people have noted, are similar enough to the mystery man to catch one's eye, but yet . . . questions remain. Unfortunately, I do not have sufficient photos from 1882 to ca. 1891, for these would have been the years the mystery photo would have been taken of Burroughs.

So unless new evidence appears, the verdict on Burroughs must be: "unproven." Any help would be appreciated in identifying either the man or the rustic glen. My thanks to all.
Stephen F. Ells
<sfe@post.harvard.edu>.