Andrew J. Russell

Andrew Joseph Russell (March 20, 1829 – September 22, 1902) was an American photographer of the American Civil War and the Union Pacific Railroad. Russell photographed construction of the Union Pacific (UP) in 1868 and 1869.

Early life Andrew J. Russell was born March 20, 1829, in Walpole, New Hampshire, as the son of Harriet (née Robinson) and Joseph Russell. He was raised in Nunda, New York. He took an early interest in painting and executed portraits and landscapes for family members and for local public figures.

The Civil War General John S. Casement and His Outfit (1867-8; during construction of the UP Railroad) During the first two years of the Civil War, Russell painted a diorama used to recruit soldiers for the Union Army. On August 22, 1862, he volunteered at Elmira, New York, mustering in the following month as Captain in Company F, 141st New York Volunteer Regiment. In February 1863, Russell took an interest in photography and paid civilian photographer Egbert Guy Fowx $300 to teach him the collodion wet-plate process. This album, like others of its time, perpetuated the notion of Manifest Destiny, and the accompanying erasure of Native American presence; Native Americans do not appear in this album, which viewed the West as a "tabula rasa" upon with the country's future could be built. for this work, Russell used his single-view camera. Russell took five group portraits that day, at least two were "...sent to New York as news pictures and arrived in time to be copied by engravers for the front page of the June 5 issue of Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper."

This ceremony marked the end of Russell's tenure as the official photographer of the Union Pacific railroad, a position he had taken after filling the same post for the Union Army during the Civil War.