C.M. Bell Studio

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.

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.