About

Randolph M. Howe was born in Fryeburg (ME) on May 9, 1862. In 1886, he interned with Hearn's Studio in Portland to become a photographer. In 1894, he was in Old Town, where he started the International Photo Studio, which name did not last beyond the year. In fact, that same year, he partnered with C.F. Rhodes to be bought out by the latter in 1896. After 1896, he stuck around in Old Town, but he seems to have engaged in a lot of traveling. In 1898, he also runs a studio in Danforth; in 1903, he is said to be commercially successful visiting county fairs with his "tintype outfit." in 1904 he sold a studio in Orono, in 1905 one in Ellsworth. That same year he is reported as living in Bangor, where he joined forces with Ansel Libby (1863-1951) to form Howe & Libby, Photographers, which partnership lasted until 1907, when Howe continued on his own. The next year, it appears he is selling his studio. In 1911, while still living in Bangor, he opened up a photo studio in Old Town. This studio, however, was managed by Orono photographer Alvin Crocker Caswell (1858-1922) and did not last more than a year. Perhaps, Howe had come into some money and effectively left the photography business at that point. Always interested in hunting and fishing, he seems to have spent more and more time at the family camp on Lovewell Pond near Fryeburg, which at some point became uniquely his. In the early 1920s, he began to rent out cottages at what was now dubbed Howe's camp, which seems to have been his main avocation for the remainder of his life. He died in Fryeburg in 1934. One documented photo assignment was an 1899 trip along the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad to "take views of sporting camps" along that line for the first issue of "In the Maine Woods: A Guidebook for Sportsmen," which was published in 1900 and contains plenty of pictures of hunting camps, but no acknowledgement of his contributions.