A Short History: “ . . . in behalf of an oppressed people.”

The story of the Bell & Brothers begins with Francis H. Bell, born in Cornwall, New York, in 1809, the son of Isaac Bell and Jemima Clark Bell. As a soldier during the War of 1812, Isaac died in 1813 in upstate New York of unknown circumstances. The widow, Jemima would migrate south to Berryville, VA, and finally settle in Fredericksburg, VA. It would be there that the boy would become a man while learning the trade as a gun and locksmith. In 1832, Francis married Sarah Broadus Wood and started a family that would include six boys and a girl. Bell & Brothers first appear in Fredericksburg periodicals as gun & locksmiths in the early 1850s. William H. Bell joined his father in the gun and locksmith business and introduced working with ambrotypes as its popularity grew in the 1850s.

At the time of the Panic of 1857, it was clear to Francis, along with many of Fredericksburg's 2,500 residents, that the town would be in harm's way should a Civil War erupt. Francis, mindful of his boys coming of age as War approached, decided to move 55 miles north to Washington D.C. and reestablish the Bell & Brother (Bell & Bros.) business in the nation's capital. By 1862, the Bells discarded the locksmith work to focus on photography and lithographs. The central business corridor would find Bell & Bros setting up their operations at 480 Pennsylvania Ave, joining 21 other photographers in Washington, D.C.

By 1862, advancing the photography work was 19 and 21-year old sons Nephi and Thomas Bell. In November of 1862, Nephi died suddenly; a month later, the Battle of Fredericksburg decimated the Bell's former community. Francis secured a family plot in Oak Hill Cemetery a short walk from where the Lincoln's had laid in repose their son "Willie" who died only months earlier. A large obelisk was placed with Nephi's photo carefully embedded on the west face, the existing and partial image exposed to over 57,500 setting suns since 1862. A year later, the parents welcomed a daughter, Nephia - only to lose her 15 months into her short life. As the year of carnage in 1864 played out in the Civil War, Francis and James managed Bell & Brothers ably to expand into lithographs to include Civil War Battlefields.

Following the Civil War, Thomas, who had enlisted in the Union Army in 1863. Following the Civil War, he joined Paraguay's defense in the Paraguayan War. Thomas would die in the Siege of Humaitá in 1866 as the family, absent the body, engraved on the obelisk under his name, "His last efforts were in behalf of an oppressed people." Bell & Brothers had already promoted young Charles Milton into the photographic operations. Securing a contract under the 40th Congress that impeached President Johnson, the federal government directed Bell & Brothers to photograph buildings and national heritage sites such as Mt. Vernon and the new National Cemetery at Arlington. The Bells fashioned the photographs for stereographic cards.

By 1872, the eldest son William had left the business. James had also decided on a different path with a career in the Post Office on his horizon. Charles Milton was now in his early 20s and taking a leading role as his father began to remove himself more and more from daily operations. By 1875, Bell & Brothers would see Charles establish his own C.M. Bell Studios. Bell Bros. Lithography Company would emerge as a separate entity, with James and Charles maintaining it with other partners. By then, Matthew Brady and Alexander Gardner had closed their studios as Charles was quickly establishing himself as the leading studio photographer in Washington, D.C. By 1900, Bell's photographic footprint would be alone in the Washington, D.C. Directory from the 21 photographers who started in 1862. In 1910, Annie Colley, widow of Charles Milton Bell, would close the illustrious chapter of Bell's photographic presence in Washington, D.C.