Excavating for "Y" at Devereaux Station, Orange & Alexandria Railroad
Medium
Albumen silver print from glass negative
Classification
Photographs
Department
Photographs
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1933
Accession Number
33.65.103
Tags
Art Historical Context
Captured in 1863 amid the American Civil War,Excavating for "" at Devereaux, Orange & Alexandria Railroad is a poignant albumen silver print from glass negative, credited to Joseph Russell under the studio Mathew B. Brady. photograph depicts Union workers labor to construct a "Y"—a Y-shaped track siding essential for reversing locomotives—on a vital rail line in Virginia. Railroads like the Orange & Alexandria were lifelines for transporting troops, ammunition, and supplies, making such engineering feats crucial to the Union's strategy against Confederate forces. Renowned Civil War photograph...
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...