Biographywas a famous photographer and painter on hand for the 1869 "Meeting of the Rails" at Promontory Point, Utah. Russell did portraits and landscapes, and both kinds of work took place at this time (including an 1869 George M. Ottinger portrait in the oil medium).
Olpin, Robert S., William C. Seifrit, and Vern G. Swanson. ARTISTS OF UTAH. Salt Lake City: Gibbs Smith Publisher, 1999: 226.