Laramie Valley, From Sheephead Mountains
1868/69
Medium
Albumen print, pl. VI from the album "Sun Pictures of Rocky Mountain Scenery" (1870)
Dimensions
Image/paper: 15.2 × 20.4 cm (6 × 8 1/16 in.); Album page: 23.2 × 30.4 cm (9 3/16 × 12 in.)
Classification
photograph
Department
Photography and Media
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
236160
Art Historical Context
**Laramie Valley, Sheephead Mountains** (1868/69) by Andrew Joseph Russell captures the, untamed beauty of the American West during a transformative era. As the official photographer for the Union Pacific Railroad, Russell documented the construction of the transcontinental railroad which linked East and West in 1869 and symbolized national expansion after the Civil War. This vista from the Sheephead Mountains showcases the Laramie Valley's rugged terrain—plate VI from his landmark album *Sun Pictures of Rocky Mountain Scenery* (1870)—highlighting how photography helped promote westward settle...
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...