City Point, Virginia

Art Historical Context

"City Point, Virginia" is a striking albumen silver print from glass negative, captured between 1861 and 1865 by Andrew Joseph Russell association with the renowned photographer Mathew B. Brady. This photograph now housed in the Metropolitan Museum Art's Photographs Department thanks to the Harris Brisbane Dick of 1933, offers a vivid glimpse into the American Civil War era. Albumen prints, popular in the mid-19th century, egg whites to bind light-sensitive silver salts to paper, producing rich tonal contrasts and fine details that brought distant scenes to life for viewers far from the front lines. The image depicts the bustling docks and boats at City Point, a vital Union supply hub on the James River in Virginia. During the war, this strategic port served as General Ulysses S. Grant's headquarters in 1864–65, handling millions of tons of supplies for the Army of the Potomac. Russell, a civil engineer turned photographer who worked under Brady's studio before operating independently, documented key military sites with remarkable clarity, making this work a precious historical record. As part of Brady's ambitious effort to photograph the Civil War—the first major conflict captured on camera—this print underscores photography's emerging role in journalism and history. It invites us to ponder the logistics of war, where boats laden with cargo symbolized both sustenance and sacrifice.

About the Artist

Andrew Joseph Russell|Mathew B. Brady · 1830–1902

Andrew Joseph Russell (1829–1902) was a pioneering American photographer whose work captured the raw drama of the Civil War and the monumental engineering of the transcontinental railroad. Born on March 20, 1829, in Walpole, New Hampshire, to Joseph Russell and Harriet Robinson, he grew up in Nunda, New York, where he developed an early passion for painting, creating portraits, landscapes, and eve...