Packing List for Lake Millinocket

This handwritten inventory documents supplies for a journey to Lake Millinocket in Maine, compiled by the Hudson River School painter Frederic Edwin Church. The list reveals the practical necessities of nineteenth-century wilderness travel: provisions ranging from salt pork and tinned goods to coffee and maple sugar; equipment including cooking implements, dinnerware, and serving pieces; domestic items such as butter, cheese, and preserved fruits; and camp furnishings. The careful enumeration reflects both the remote location's distance from supply sources and the period's assumption that travelers must bring civilization's comforts into the backcountry. Church's attention to detail mirrors the meticulous observation required for his landscape paintings.