As the 19th century gave way to the 20th, a man with a good job and no children explored the relatively new, relatively expensive hobby of photography.

William Henry Titus, from Suffolk County, New York, was the owner and managing editor of the Ellsworth American from 1913 to 1945. He began learning the printing trade at the age of 13 in the office of the South Side Signal in Babylon New York. He became a reporter in New York City, and in 1890 became managing editor of the Mamaroneck Paragraph. Titus came to Maine as a local editor of the Ellsworth American in 1894 and was an associate editor until 1902, when he returned to New York. He returned to Ellsworth in 1905, married Anne Woodward, and purchased the Ellsworth American in 1913.

Photography was a passionate hobby for Titus and not part of his job, as the Ellsworth American did not publish photographs until quite a few years after these images were produced. With his camera, William Titus, or “Will” as he was called, captured the seasons and textures of the Ellsworth countryside.