He was called "one of Washington's leading portrait photographers during the last quarter of the nineteenth century" by the Library of Congress.

[1] Bell was the youngest member of a photographer family who had a studio in Washington, D.C. in the 1860s and 1870s.

[5][citation needed] He was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington, D.C.[4] After Bell's death in 1893, his wife continued to operate the studio with her sons.

It was sold in the early 1900s to Atha and Cunningham who retained the original name.

[6] From there they would end up owned by the American Genetic Association who donated them to the Library of Congress.