1226
locomotives of the Union Pacifi c and Central Pacifi c
Railroads coming together at Promontory, Utah at the
Golden Spike Ceremony.
Russell was the natural choice when the Union Pa-
cifi c decided to photographically document, The Work
of the Age. Russell was a New York State native who
moved from Nunda, New York to New York City in
1859 where he was a painter and portrait photographer.
During the Civil War he was assigned as a special as-
sistant to the Military Railroad Construction Corps for
the Union Army. Most of his images documented the
construction of military railways and his photographs
were often rushed by special messenger to Secretary of
War Edwin M. Stanton in Washington D.C. Russell as
well photographed the battle of Fredericksburg and took
a few stereo-views, and some Russell photographs have
mistakenly been attributed to Matthew Brady.
After the war Russell returned to New York City to
resume his work as a portrait photographer and artist.
For whatever reason, Russell was not hired immediately
after the war and the Railroad used the Chicago, Illinois
photographer John Carbutt instead. Given, however,
Russell’s background in railroad photography and the
fact that most of the Union Pacifi c executives were for-
mer Union Army offi cers, he must have seemed a better
fi t. Russell began photographing the Railroad headquar-
ters in Omaha, Nebraska in early 1868 and he caught
up with the construction crew in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
He followed its frenzied pace across Wyoming, into
Utah, and fi nally to the site where the Union Pacifi c and
Central Pacifi c lines came together at Promontory, Utah
on May 10, 1869. There were three photographers (the
other two being C.R. Savage and Alfred A. Hart) at the
Golden Spike Ceremony. The photographs taken were,
not surprisingly, mostly devoid of the workers who built
the railroad (Irish-Americans for the Union Pacifi c and
Chinese-Americans for the Central Pacifi c). Instead they
show the railroad offi cials, fi nanciers, and dignitaries
who were invited to the event. Afterwards Russell trav-
eled to Sacramento along the Central Pacifi c line taking
a handful of images as he went. Before returning to New
York City, he photographed across Utah and Wyoming
again, but this time at a more leisurely pace.
Russell showed a great deal of fl exibility as a photog-
rapher. The twenty-three large-format images published
by the Union Pacifi c in The Great West Illustrated in a
Series of Photographic Views Across the Continent (only
a handful of which exist today) portray the builders of
the railroad in heroic terms. They evoke awe of the work
done and convey both movement and power. The thirty
images utilized in a book published by geology professor
Ferdinand Hayden one year later entitled Sun Pictures
of Rocky Mountain Scenery, however, are not dramatic
images but instead are scenes of geological interest.
Hayden was in charge of the U.S. Geographical and
Geological Survey and wanted to promote the study of
geology in Western America. Most of these photographs
were taken after the joining of the rails when Russell had
more time to pick and choose his subjects. In these pho-
tographs nature is not an obstacle to be overcome, but a
source of interest to the traveler. Neither of these books,
however, had a wide distribution and the general public
viewed the building of the transcontinental railroad
through stereo-view series published by Russell initially
and later without attribution by Stephen Sedgwick and
O.C. Smith. These images are surprisingly mundane.RUSSELL, ANDREW JOSEPH
Russell, Andrew Joseph.
Slave Pen, Alexandria,
Virginia.
The Metropolitan Musuem
of Art, Gilman Collection,
Purchase, The Horace W.
Goldsmith Foundation Gift,
2005 (2005.100.91) Image
© The Metropolitan Museum
of Art.