American Historical Ephemera & Photography

Quarter plate tintype. (Some surface abrasions and areas of loss to emulsion.) Housed in pressed leather case (detached at the hinge). An extremely rare portrait of Russell casually posed in an unknown studio setting. 

Born in Nunda, New York, Russell began his career as a painter, executing portraits and landscapes. At the outbreak of the Civil War he mustered into the 141st New York Infantry as a captain. In 1863 he became interested in photography, and learned the craft from E.G. Fowx, a Brady and War Department operator. His images soon came to the attention of Herman Haupt, Director of the US Military Railroad who arranged for Russell to be transferred to that department and later, the Quartermaster Corps. He would remain in this position until war’s end, mustering out in September 1865. 

Russell’s evocative images of the vast military transport and logistics system of the Union Army contrasted with the battlefield views of Brady, O’Sullivan, and Gardner. They provide an unparalleled record of the Union War effort. His rare, battlefield scenes, including “Confederate Dead Behind the Stone Wall” at Chancellorsville show him equal to any of the Brady field operators in capturing the horrors of war.

After the War, Russell took a position as Official Photographer of the Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR) and spent much of 1868 photographing construction scenes in Wyoming and Utah. Employing multiple cameras, he produced 200 large while plate (10 x 13 in.) and 500 stereo negatives. His work culminated in a landmark album illustrated with 50 whole plate images titled “Photographic Views Across the Continent.” In 1869, he returned to Utah and photographed the completion of the first transcontinental railroad joining the UPRR with the Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) at the “last spike” ceremony on 10 May at Promontory.

After his work in the West, Russell established a design studio in New York and worked as a photojournalist for Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper in the early 1890s.

Though married, Russell was apparently estranged from his wife and two daughters, who lived in Minnesota and Illinois. He died in Brooklyn, New York in 1902.

This image, along with other Russell photographs in this auction, were recently discovered in Illinois, and purportedly descended in Russell's family.