Never mind that Lucius Merrill labeled the photograph as Basin Pond.

Zip Kellogg says the image with its “veritable wall of rock which we now call the South Basin” is probably Chimney Pond.

And sure, Mount Katahdin has been captured on camera innumerable times – even in color. But there’s something about this black-and-white picture and the majesty surrounding the lone figure standing on an angled boulder, wearing suit and hat and beard.

It was taken on Sept. 27, 1894.

This and nearly 50 other photographs have been published with an essay by Richard W. Judd and photo captions by Edward “Zip” Kellogg, by Bangor Public Library in “Ktaadn Trails: Lucius Merrill and the Paths to Katahdin.”

Merrill, a professor of geology and chemistry at the University of Maine, took the photographs on journeys to Maine’s highest mountain in 1892 and 1894.

He gave the photographs to colleague H. Walter Leavitt, an engineering professor at Maine and secretary of the Maine Technology Experiment Station for many years. Leavitt’s son, Lawrence, donated the glass negatives to Bangor Public Library.

Merrill photographed Katahdin from a variety of perspectives, near and far. And interestingly, many of the pictures show people, probably from Merrill’s party.

There’s “Grover with fish” and “Washburn with fish,” each man displaying a catch of small trout at Bell Camp, a lumber camp on the Wassataquoik Stream.

Other photos show women in long dresses on the porch of “Camp at Kukunsook.”

The porch posts still sport shortened branches, perhaps to hang things on, Kellogg suggests. Further, he points out, “a small deciduous tree is growing through the roof! The builder of this camp had quite a sense of humor.”

There’s a shot of “Old David Malcolm” sitting on a pile of wood, sorting blueberries – at the end of September, no less. In the background some of the trees, bare and dead, are probably evidence of the 1884 fire, Kellogg believes.

Judd dips into a variety of writings in his essay about Katahdin, including newspapers of a century ago and more. In the second half of the 19th century, fewer than 50 people a year climbed the mountain, he points out.

“The common theme in these early accounts is Katahdin’s inaccessibility, a prospect that kept the mountain clothed in obscurity despite its stature as one of New England’s highest peaks and despite the burgeoning tourist trade to the south in Maine,” Judd wrote.

The first “recorded ascent,” in 1804, involved William Howe, Amos Patten, Samuel Call and William Rice of Bangor; Richard Winslow of Old Town; Charles Turner Jr. of Scituate, Mass.; and two Penobscot guides.

Many more people climb Katahdin these days, but there is still much about it that is remote.

“And so even if our cars can’t climb Mount Katahdin, we can enjoy the spirit of the mountain – its myths, its memories, and above all, the various images preserved in photographs like those Lucius Merrill created to record his 1892 and 1894 journeys,” Judd wrote. “And this, in the end, was the compromise that Percival P. Baxter affected in his epic achievement – buying up the great mountain to create a great park and preserve for the people of Maine. Baxter gave the mountain to the people, but he made sure we keep it at arm’s length.”

Richard Judd and Zip Kellogg will talk about their book at 2 p.m. Saturday, April 15, at Bangor Public Library, 145 Harlow St.

“Ktaadn Trails” is available for $18.95 plus tax from Bangor Public Library. Roxanne Moore Saucier can be reached at 990-8139 and familyti@bangordailynews.net.