Beschreibung:

RUSSELL, ANDREW J. United States Military Rail Road Photographic Album. ca. 1865. 117 ALBUMEN PHOTOGRAPHIC PRINTS, various sizes, mostly large format (approx. 9 x 13 in.), plus 20 smaller prints, mounted back to back on thick card with letterpress or manuscript labels neatly affixed to mounts recording title, number and date, some captions lettered in ink on the mounts, a few with additional pencilled notations. One print ("Ruins in Richmond") present in duplicate. Folio, original half morocco, gilt-lettered leather title label on upper cover, rebacked preserving original spine, hinges reinforced, rear endsheet repaired, two mounts with repairs not affecting images, mounts spotted, but plates surprisingly clean. FIRST EDITION. ONE OF PERHAPS FOUR EXTANT COPIES OF AN IMPORTANT AND LITTLE-KNOWN COLLECTION OF CIVIL WAR PHOTOGRAPHS. Russell was prescient in his assertion that "the memories of our Great War came down to us and will pass onto future generations with more accuracy and more truth-telling illustration than that of any previous struggle...and the world is indebted to the photographic art." He and fellow Civil War photographer Timothy O'Sullivan went on after the war to record the exploration and settlement of the American West. Russell's best-known work chronicled the mammoth effort made by the Union Pacific Railroad in 1868 and 1869 to complete the first transcontinental railraod. His "East Meets West at Laying Last Rail," taken at Promontory on May 18, 1869, has become a visual symbol of American technological progress. Russell's earlier work as Government photographer during the civil War is represented in this exceedingly rare album containing selected images taken between the Spring of 1863 and the Summer of 1865. Captain Russell first served under Brigadier General Herman Haupt Chief of Construction and Transportation of the United States Military Railroad Construction Corps. He was detached from his regiment and detailed to photograph Haupt's experiments "to determine the most practical and expeditious" ways for "construction, destruction and reconstruction of roads and bridges...to facilitate the movements of the armies of the Rappahannock of Virginia and of the Potomac." When Haupt resigned his commission in September 1863, Captain Russell received additional photograph orders from Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs and Gneral Daniel C. McCallum, Superintendent and General Manager of the U.S. Military Railroads. Russell's striking photographs chronicle the destruction in Virginia and the improvements underway in Washington, D.C. to support the war effort. Arsenals, encampments, batteries, gun boats, ordinance, and of course, depots and trestle bridges on the Orange & Alexandria Rail Road, Aquia Creek Rail Road and City Point and Army Line are represented. His photographs were distributed to the President and his cabinet, to high ranking officers and to other important dignataires. They were highly regarded for their artistic quality and for their truthfullness in depicting the Construction Corps remarkable engineering feats. Unfortunately, Russell's renown was eclipsed by the end of the war and subsequently his work has been attributed to Mathew Brady or Brady's atelier. While individual prints attributed to Russell occasionally appear on the market, this well documented bound series is remarkably rare. Some photographs, such as the "Block House, Near Alexandria," "Petersburg & Weldon R.R.'s Shops," and "Grand Review" are found in no other collections. The ordering of the plates is unique. The random sequencing of photographs is typical of Russell's U.S. Military Rail Road and Union Pacific Rail Road albums. When the photographs were reprinted in the Dover off set edition, The Civil War Photographs of A.J. Russell , the compilors termed the ordering a "jumble" and altered the plate sequence and edited the original captions to create an illustrated history of the war. The editing attempted to compen