(WEST) Andrew J Russell; photographer Group of Officials at

Sale 2546 - Lot 241

Price Realized: $ 2,250

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 2,500 - $ 3,500

TAKEN AT THE GOLDEN SPIKE GATHERING (WEST.) Andrew J. Russell; photographer. Group of Officials at Junction. Albumen print, 9 x 11 3/4 inches, on original 13 1/2 x 17-inch plain mount with manuscript caption on recto; minor soiling to mat, image clean. [Promontory Summit, UT], [10 May 1869]

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The noted photographer Andrew Joseph Russell spent two years as the official photographer of Union Pacific Railroad, culminating in the famous Golden Spike ceremony which joined the western and eastern portions of the Transcontinental Railroad. Offered here is one of his lesser-known photographs from the event, with a large group of men and women posed in front of a Union Pacific train.
Another copy of this image is held by the Gilder Lehrman Collection, which notes: "Group portrait of Union Pacific Railroad officers at the ceremony of the laying of the last rail at Promontory Point, Utah. Absent from this photograph is Thomas C. Durant, Union Pacific's Vice President. Durant remained in his car, nursing a severe headache. Two days earlier, Durant's workmen had surrounded his car and refused to let him move until they received five months' back pay."