Coal Wharf, Alexandria, Virginia
March 1863
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Dimensions
Image: 5 3/8 × 7 13/16 in. (13.7 × 19.8 cm) Sheet: 5 3/8 × 7 13/16 in. (13.7 × 19.8 cm) Mount: 9 13/16 in. × 13 5/16 in. (24.9 × 33.8 cm)
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, Vital Projects Fund Inc. Gift, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 2019
Accession Number
2019.491
Tags
Art Historical Context
In March 1863, amid the American Civil War, photographer Andrew Joseph Russell captured *Coal Wharf, Alexandria, Virginia*, documenting a vital Union supply hub. Alexandria, just across the Potomac from Washington, D.C., fell under federal control early in the conflict and became a bustling port for provisioning the Northern war effort. This image depicts the coal wharf, where fuel was loaded onto ships and trains, underscoring the war's immense logistical demands—far beyond the battlefield clashes immortalized by Matthew Brady's team. Russell, a Civil War veteran and official photographer fo...
About the Artist
Andrew Joseph Russell · 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...