(Source: Imaging Resource, November 23, 2015)
Born in 1829, Andrew J. Russell worked a variety of jobs throughout his life. He was first a portrait and landscape painter. In 1862, he helped to organize a militia for the Union Army. While serving for the Union, Russell learned wet-plate collodion photography from photographer Egbert Guy Fowx for a fee of $300 (which is many thousands of dollars in today’s money). A few months later, Russell was given the duty of the Army’s first official photographer. Russell documented the army engineers’ building of military railroads under General Herman Haupt.
Full story: Imaging Resource