1227
Taken as a whole, however, the stereo-views create a
visual catalog of the workers, tunnels, bridges, buildings,
railroad engines, and new towns of the Union Pacifi c
and satisfi ed the demand by the public for photographs
instead of artwork (whose accuracy was suspect to many
Americans) of the American West.
Russell’s artistic background is shown in his large-
format views by the careful composition and thoughtful
placement of the railroad within its natural surroundings.
The images provide a human perspective on what for
Russell must have seemed an impossibly forbidding
landscape. A number of photographs show fi gures con-
templating the railroad from a high vantage point. These
views reinforce the idea of the railroad as conquering
the great distances of the American West, but also in a
precarious balance with the natural forces surrounding
it. Russell was, as well, a pioneering photographer. Al-
though his equipment did not allow him to stop action,
he did attempt to set up scenes as if he were capturing
the daily work of the laborers. Many of his photographs
were, as well, made into wood-cut illustrations and
printed in weekly magazines.
Russell was the fi rst of many photographers, includ-
ing William Henry Jackson, Charles Roscoe Savage,
Carleton Watkins, and Eadweard Muybridge who pho-
tographed both the Union Pacifi c and Central Pacifi c
Railroads. Russell provided scenes which were bought
by an Eastern audience eager for images of what was
still then considered an exotic and romantic place.
Surprisingly, however, there is no evidence that Russell
ventured to Western America again in his lifetime.
Daniel M. Davis
Biography
Andrew Joseph Russell was born on March 20, 1829 and
grew up in Nunda, New York. As a young man he was a
painter and a teacher at the Nunda Literary Institute be-
fore moving to New York City in 1859 where he worked
as a panorama painter and a portrait photographer. Dur-
ing the Civil War, Russell became the offi cial railroad
military photographer for the Union Army. He returned
to New York City after the war, but soon thereafter trav-
eled west to start documenting the construction of the
Union Pacifi c Railroad through Nebraska, Wyoming,
and Utah. He is best known for the 250 large-format
images he took of the building of the transcontinental
railroad in 1868 and 1869 including one of the most
famous images in American history, that of the two
railroad engines of the Union Pacifi c and Central Pacifi c
coming together at Promotory, Utah. He also took over
500 stereographic negatives during these two years that
were actually seen by a larger audience at the time.
Russell earned a good salary from the Union Pacifi c for
over two years, yet others gained more materially from
his images as his stereo-views were later issued without
attribution. In the 1960s a cache of glass-plate negatives
were discovered at the American Geographical Society
and his large-format views became better known. After
photographing the railroad, Russell returned to New
York City and worked as a portrait photographer as well
as an artist for the magazine Leslie’s Illustrated. He died
on September 22, 1902.
See also: Savage, Charles Roscoe; and Watkins,
Alfred.Further Reading
Bain, David Howard, Empire Express: Building the First Trans-
continental Railroad, New York: Penguin, 1999.
Current, Karen & Current, William R., Photography and the Old
West, New York: Abradale Press, 1986.
Mautz, Carl, Biographies of Western Photographers: a Reference
Guide to Photographers Working in the 19th Century Ameri-
can West, Nevada City, Calif.: Carl Mautz Publishing, 1997.
Naef, Weston J. & Wood, James N., Era of Exploration: The Rise
of Landscape Photography in the American West, 1860-1885,
Buffalo, New York: Albright-Knox Art Gallery, 1975.
Richards, Bradley W., The Savage View: Charles Savage, Pio-
neer Mormon Photographer, Nevada City, Calif.: Carl Mautz
Publishing, 1995.
Wadsworth, Nelson B., Through Camera Eyes, Provo, Utah:
Brigham Young University Press, 1975.RUSSIAN EMPIRE
The fi rst information about the invention of Daguerre
reached Russia already on 4th January 1839 (accord-
ing to the Julian calendar). It was followed by active
discussions in the press of the future perspectives of
photography. A special emphasis common for all par-
ticipants to these discussions was made on the docu-
mental character of daguerreotypes. But the evaluations
were in fact different. The new invention did not fail
to interest the scientists from St. Petersburg Academy
of Sciences. In April of 1839 academicians (biolo-
gists) Karl-Ernst Bar (1792–1876) and Fyodor Brandt
(1802–1879) asked the corresponding member of the
Academy of Sciences, Josef Hamel (1788–1862) to get
acquainted with the new invention in the course of his
business trip abroad.
First Hamel went to London and got acquainted
with Talbot and his invention. In May of 1839 Hamel
sent to the Academy the description of Talbot’s method
and a couple of photos, which were of bad quality.
The Academy Assembly therefore committed a task to
Julian Frizshe, an academician (1802–1871) to survey
the calotype method. The academician informed on the
results of his research work on the 23rd of May of 1839
and demonstrated the picture of herbarium, which he
made by using the method of photographic recording
(photogram). In the course of his work on these pictures