Frank H. Nowell was born Feb. 19, 1864 in Portsmouth, NH. He joined his father, Thomas Nowell, in their mining company, the Boston and Alaska Mining Company (later, the Nowell gold Mining Co.), on Douglas Island, Alaska, in 1886, where he performed the jobs of wholesaler, accountant, banker, agent, and manager. He married Elizabeth Helen Davis of Detroit, MI, and they moved to the west coast where he became purchasing agent for his father's company in Juneau.

By this time Frank had developed an interest in photography. He returned to Juneau, then went to Nome and worked for the Ames Mercantile Company. In 1900 he moved to Teller, Alaska, to open a branch of the company. Eventually he returned to Nome and opened a photograph studio. In 1907, Frank Nowell and six other photographers published a nine volume set of photograph booklets entitled, "The Art Work of Seattle and Alaska." During 1909, Nowell served as official photographer of the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in Seattle. Subsequently, he established a photograph studio in Seattle which he operated for twenty-five years. He retired to his ranch near Seattle where he lived until his death in 1950 at the age of 86.[From: "Frank H. Nowell," by Donald Deschner, Alaska Review, vol. 3 p. l93-201.]