C.M. Bell Studio

C.M. Bell Studio Historic repository containing the photography (1862-1910) of Charles Milton Bell and Bell & Bros.

06/02/2026

In C. M. Bell’s Washington studio, the portraits of Mrs. H. T. Adams and a younger Adams generation illustrate Alexander Graham Bell’s (no relation)belief that glass plate photography could preserve not only faces, but the inherited family traits and resemblances that linked one generation to the next.

05/28/2026

In this remarkable portrait from around 1910, Reverend Andrews of the African Methodist Episcopal Church sits before the camera of C. M. Bell in Washington, D.C.

There are few surviving details about Andrews himself, yet the image tells its own story. At the turn of the twentieth century, AME ministers often stood at the center of Black civic and religious life, serving not only as pastors, but as educators, organizers, and community leaders during an era marked by segregation and profound social change.

Bell’s portrait strips away distraction and leaves only presence, dignity, composure, and resolve.

More than a century later, Reverend Andrews still meets the viewer eye to eye.

05/24/2026

This Memorial Day 2026, we remember the men who fought in America’s Civil War and carried its memory for the rest of their lives.

Some proudly wore their old uniforms once again in old age. Others sat before the camera in simple civilian clothes, having returned to peace, family, and ordinary American life.

These portraits by Charles Milton Bell capture both the sacrifice of war and the quiet dignity that followed it.

05/13/2026

From Mathew Brady’s wartime studio to the quiet precision of C.M. Bell’s camera, Dr. Mary Edwards Walker carried the same defiant gaze. Surgeon, prisoner of war, reformer, and the only woman ever awarded the Medal of Honor, she never surrendered either her convictions or the medal itself. Two portraits. One extraordinary American life.

05/07/2026

The Cortelyou family, Washington, 1898.�George Jr., William, Grace, and baby Helen, children of Lillie and George Cortelyou, then serving President William McKinley.
Power just beyond the frame.�Childhood, right here.

04/28/2026

She took over a photography studio in 1893… and history barely mentions her.
After her husband’s death, Annie Colley Bell stepped in and ran the business during a time when women rarely held that kind of power.
Stories like hers remind us how many women shaped industries—quietly, and without recognition.

04/20/2026

The “Red Brick City” Harpist
Adolf Cluss built the city, but Anita Cluss gave it a soul.
Meet the woman behind the music of 19th-century DC. A premier harpist in the Georgetown Orchestra and a fixture of the city’s social elite, Anita T. Cluss proved that the Cluss legacy wasn’t just about bricks and mortar—it was about memory and art.

04/12/2026

Senator Dawes (R-MA), Dawes Act (1887)

04/04/2026

In this portrait, Daniel Alexander Payne isn’t posing, he’s carrying a vision.
A bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, he built schools, shaped minds, and helped lead Wilberforce University.
Faith isn’t comfort.
It’s what you build under pressure.

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465 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington D.C., DC
20001

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