Egbert Guy Fowx, Photographer at Petersburg

Capt. Andrew J. Russell, stands atop the steps. Photographer and mentor, Egbert Guy Fowx, leans against the pillar. Image from The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography Vol. 110, No. 4 (2002), pg. 440.

Egbert Guy Fowx (1821-1889) had a photography studio on North Gay Street in Baltimore, Maryland, from 1860s to 1880s.

Born in Kentucky, 1821. Active in Baltimore. Died 17 October 1889. Buried Jersey City and Harsimus Cemetery, Jersey City, New Jersey. At the start of the Civil War, Fowx enrolled as one of Mathew Brady's photo-documentarians. By 1863, he was working for Alexander Gardner. In February 1863, Fowx taught Captain Andrew J. Russell the ins and outs of the wet-plate collodion process, purportedly for the fee of $300. Sometime in late 1864, Fowx set up a portraiture studio at City Point and also worked for Mathew Brady on commission. He was one of the first photographers, along with Andrew Russell and Thomas Roche, to document the ruins of Richmond at the end of the war. After the war, he operated his own photography studio in Baltimore, Maryland. 

LC 35236 (LC-B8175-2). "Gen. U.S. Grant at his Cold Harbor, Va., headquarters, June, 1864." This is one of Fowx's most recognizable photographs.

Detail from 524974a NARA, showing Fowx's studio at City Point, where he photographed groups and individuals for a fee.

"View of Egbert Guy Fowx or an Assistant Developing a Photograph in a Mobile Darkroom in Richmond, Virginia (1865)."