Has anyone here ever seen one of these motor wells intended to use an outboard as an inboard? I found this in Bob Spelts' book. Also, is there a more appropriate forum to post this question?
Most old wooden boats were abandoned to rot after fiberglass became popular. Some small marine museums got started at that time because people were giving away their old boats. I have only ever seen a few motor canoes like the one shown above.
I know a private collection containing 5 or more traditional double-ended cedar-canvas motor canoes that have outboards for power. I’m not sure if any of them use this particular well design though.
I haven't seen a canoe with a Harvey case, though I have seen canoes with through-hull mounted outboards, like the one shown in this 1916 flyer. With no means to kick up, I expect a number of canoes were sunk by inattentive canoe-motorists.
Sue Audette's book The Old Town Canoe Company: Our First Hundred Years says "By 1923 Old Town Canoe took on the distributorship of the complete line of popular Johnson outboard motors, becoming Johnson's first distributor" on page 67. See https://www.wcha.org/forums/index.php?threads/11544/ for more about some inboard motor canoes that they made prior to 1923.
Evinrude was often described as "Evin-crude" when I was a child wandering around the Old Town factory in the 1960s. Their factory inventory from December 31st, 1910 had a Thrall engine with a value of $45 in stock on page 124. This and an advertisement for these motors from 1909 are shown below.