Captain Jesse Mitchell (1812 – July 18, 1872) was a British army officer who served as Superintendent of the Government Museum, Madras, succeeding Edward Balfour, from 15 May 1859 to 7 August 1872. He was one of the pioneers of photomicrography in India.^[1] Some of his early photographs include those of Phthiraptera from a goose and the proboscis of a blow-fly.^[2] He was a captain and an adjutant in the 1st Native veteran Battalion of the Indian Army. He exhibited his first photographs of old temples in 1857 at a meeting of the Photographic Society of Bengal, which also earned praise in the Madras Journal of Literature and Science. In 1858 he showed some negatives at a meeting of the Photographic Society of Madras.^[3] He wrote on the photographic techniques that he experimented with and suggested modifications to those followed by Captain Linnaeus Tripe and Dr. A.C. Brisbane Neill.^[4] He also published notes from the museum such as one on the Indian climbing perch and its habit.^[5][6]

Mitchell helped establish the Museum Library which later became the Connemara Public Library, acquiring books, often second-hand to stock it. It was opened in June 1862.^[7] Mitchell died while in service and is buried at St. George's Cathedral, Madras.^[6]