[Wharf and Transpors, City Point, Virginia]

Art Historical Context

### Wharf and Transports, City Point, Virginia Captured between 1861 and 1865 by pioneering photographers Andrew Joseph Russell and Mathew B. Brady, this albumen silver print from a glass negative offers a vivid glimpse into the American Civil War's logistical backbone. Brady, a titan of 19th-century photography, led efforts to document the conflict, often employing talents like Russell, a civil engineer turned photographer renowned for his detailed battlefield and infrastructure images. The albumen process—using egg whites to bind light-sensitive silver salts—produced richly toned, high-cont...

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...