Andrew Joseph Russell Stereograph Catalog -
[Cached Version]
Published on: 11/27/2002
Last Visited: 8/15/2003
A. J. Russell, Laying of Last Rail, NARAAndrew J. Russell, Imperial View, "Laying of Last Rail."
...
Andrew J. Russell was born on March 20, 1829 in Walpole, New Hampshire.He grew up in New York, where his family worked in canal and railroad construction.Originally a painter, as an army captian during the Civil War he was assigned special duty as photographer for the United States Military Railroad.After the war, Russell became facinated with the national project of constructing a transcontinental railroad.During 1868 and 1869, his camera recorded the incredible progress of the Union Pacific Railroad building west from Laramie to Promontory Summit.Covering the May 10, 1869 "Wedding of the Rails" for Frank Leslie's Illustrated, Russell made a series of photographs which included one of the most famous images in American history.Well aware of the importance of the event, he wrote: "The great railroad problem of the age is now solved.The continental iron band now permanently unites the distant portions of the Republic and opens up to commerce, navigation, and enterprise the vast unpeopled plains and lofty mountain ranges that divide the East from the West."Comment by National Park Service.
Russell, A.J., and Company, New York City (active 1860s to 1870s): Russell worked as a Civil War photographer for the United States Military Construction Corporation.He made the extensive series "Union Pacific R.R. Stereoscopic Views", photographing railway construction from Cheyenne, Wyoming Territory, to Promontory [Summit, Utah Territory] (1868-1869).In 1870 he continued coverage of [the] Pacific Railroad as far as California.In 1868 Russell began publishing the series "Pacific R.R. Views Across the Continent West from Omaha".The views are found without credit to Russell, but rather credit went to O.C. Smith, who obtained the negatives in about 1875 and offered them with credit to himself into 1878.
...
Hart of Sacramento,] and A. J. Russell recorded the historic events.
...
After 1870 Russell returned to New York where he became the world's first photojournalist working for Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper until the early 1890's.From 1869-1875 Russell published 15 different series of the photos taken during his time in Utah.In 1875 Russell sold a number of these negatives to O.C. Smith who published the stereoviews and Imperial views, under Smith's own name, from 1875-78.
...
Russell and party having breakfast in the Uintah Mountains]
...
Photographers A.J. Russell and C.R. Savage were photographing together at this time.Savage is shown here next to the photographers wagon.]
...
1) Russell, Andrew Joseph.The Great West Illustrated in a Series of Photographic Views Across the Continent; Taken Along the Line of the Union Pacific Railroad, West From Omaha, Nebraska.New York, Union Pacific Railroad Company, 1869.
...
The photographs are by Andrew J. Russell (1830-1902).Originally trained as a painter, Russell, in 1863, was to become the first member of the army officially assigned to photograph the Civil War.Working under General Herman Haupt of the United States Military Railroad, he photographed devices used to transport troops, as well as documenting the construction and destruction of roads and bridges.Russell left the army in 1865 and began his most famous work photographing construction along the lines of the Union Pacific Railroad.This culminated in a series of photographs made at the joining of the rails at Promontory Point, Utah, in May 1869.During the early 1870s Russell returned to New York, where he ran a photography studio.
...
Though most of the images have been attributed to Russell, a number of landscapes have the initials WHJ scratched into the negatives, denoting the work of William Henry Jackson.
...
First ed 4to., viii, 150 pp., 30 albumen photographs (8 x 6 in.) by A. J. Russell on printed mounts.In 1869 A. J. Russell's extremely rare album THE GREAT WEST ILLUSTRATED. was published for the Union Pacific Railroad Company.It contained a series of 50 folio size photographs of the American West, depicting railway construction, geological formations, towns, Salt Lake City, etc. One year later the noted geologist, Ferdinand V. Hayden prepared SUN PICTURES OF ROCKY MOUNTAIN SCENERY.He intended this book to be used as a guide to the geological formations along the train route from Cheyenne to Salt Lake City.To illustrate this book, he selected 30 of Russell's photographs of the geological formations in the Rockies, the Sierra Nevadas, Wyoming, Utah and California, which had appeared in THE GREAT WEST ILLUSTRATED in a larger format.
...
List of Stereographs by Andrew J. Russell as cataloged on back lists published on the stereograph verso: from combined information from the National Stereoscopic Association publication "Stereoview Back-Lists" compiled by John.J.Wilburn and T. K. Treadwell, the Barry Swackhamer Collection, the Union Pacific Railroad Collection, Courtesy Don D. Snoddy, UPRR on-line A. J. Russell Stereoview Collection, and their Imperial Views, and other private collections.
List of Large Format Imperial Views by Andrew J. Russell:
11 online sources [ view sources ]
Profile is not claimed [ claim profile ]
