Historical Timeline

Walter Russell Historical Timeline

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‍Walter Russell, Childhood and Youth (1871-1890)

1871: May 19th – Born in Boston, Massachusetts to Jacob and Malinda Russell, Nova Scotian immigrants.

1880: Walter leaves school at age nine and a half to enter the labor force. Having acquired four years and two months of formal schooling. The department store Jordan and Marsh hired him as a “cash boy” for $2.50 a week.

1885: Around Walter’s fourteenth birthday, he contracted Diphtheria, an illness that left his throat black and barely able to breathe. More than one physician declared him beyond hope. He describes this catastrophe in his life as a transformational experience, declaring that he became fully aware of his life’s purpose during this episode. Quote “Then again came the great Light which had come to me in my first illumining, and I arose from my bed to the great amazement of my weeping parents and to the doctors who found that my throat functioned as properly as though it was perfectly healed.” Despite a miraculous, rapid recovery, he was left with paralysis of the body for six months. Three of his brothers and sisters (Almon, an infant; Burton, seventeen months old; and Minnie, three years old) succumbed to the disease.

1886: June – Walter was baptized by Reverend Albert K. Potter at the Dudley Street Baptist Church in Roxbury.

1887: Walter entered Massachusetts Normal Art School on November 7th to begin four years of formal art education. In his fourth year, he and 18 Boston painters sailed to Paris to study at the Académie Julian.

Walter Russell, The Artist (1890-1920)

1891: Walter’s career as an artist begins with the publication of his illustration for a magazine article titled “The Ten Little Pigs” which impressed renowned author, Mark Twain, so much he insisted on meeting Walter for an interview to discuss the idea of commissioning a new edition of “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”

1894: Walter marries Helen May Andrews on January 10th and the two spend the next three months in Paris. After returning to America, they move into a home across from Madison Square Park in New York City.

1896: Walter’s daughter, Helen Webster Russell, was born on October 9th.

1897: Walter started working at Collier’s Weekly Magazine.

1898: During the Spanish-American War, Walter supplies Collier’s with five paintings, then more battle scenes for The Century Magazine, and drawings for the two articles he wrote from on board the battleship USS New York. This is when he first met Theodore Roosevelt in Florida.

1900: Walter’s daughter, Louise Russell, was born on August 30th. Walter completes an allegorical painting entitled "The Might of Ages" – Initially rejected by the National Board of Design in New York, but accepted soon after by commissioners of the King of Italy as a representative American picture at the Turin International Art Exposition, winning honorable mention from Italy, France, Belgium, and Spain, including membership to the Spanish Academic of Arts and Letters in Toledo. A few years later it was displayed at an exhibition in Dallas, Texas.

1901: Walter writes and illustrates the children’s book, “The Sea Children”

1903: Walter writes and illustrates the children’s book, “The Bending of the Twig”, a memoir of observations of Helen and Louise as infants. Walter also paints the Roosevelt children this year. He has this to say about his time with the Roosevelt family – “During my sixteen weeks of association with President Theodore Roosevelt, while I was painting his children, I absorbed something into my life from his majestic personality which transformed me quite entirely.”

1904: Walter is commissioned by The Ladies’ Home Journal to find and paint “The Prettiest Children in America” in the United States of America. In an article to promote the competition, the editors of the Ladies’ Home Journal introduced Walter Russell. “Russell has leaped to the front as a painter of American children, not wholly because of his ability to put good drawing and color on canvas, but also because he has made it his lifework to know children. He has romped with them; taken them into fields and woods; become one of them. In this way he has put into his portraits that rare quality which so few painters have succeeded in finding: the inner, the real, child.” He also writes and illustrates the children’s book, “The Age of Innocence”, dedicated to President Theordore Roosevelts children.

1905: Walter becomes a horse breeder.

1908: Walter Russell designs, as an architect, a building. Alwyn Court

1909: Walter Russell designs, as an architect, a building. 44West 77th Gothic House

1911: Walter Russell turns the age of 40. Opens a studio in Hotel Blackstone in Chicago.

1900-1914: Russell mainly paints portraits of children. Principal instructors in art: Albert Munsell and Ernest Major of Boston, Howard Pyle of Philadelphia and Jean Paul Laurens from the Academy Julian in Paris.

1914: Russell mainly paints portraits of notables, writes books and builds numerous big buildings, some of which still exist. Together with other sculptors, architects and painters he conceived the principle of co-operative ownership for flats in New York.

Walter Russell, The Scientist (1921-1946)

May of 1921, Walter Russell at the age of 49 years old experiences a 39 day and night period of illumination, writing down some 40,000 words given to him from the Light of Cosmic Consciousness – later published as "The Message of the Divine Iliad."

1921: Walter Russell paints The Octave Wave.1921: Walter Russell turns the age of 50.

1922: Dr. Henry Norris Russell “checks the first astronomical charts” by Walter Russell.

Exact Date Unknown: Dr. H.H. Sheldon places a laboratory at the disposal of Walter Russell, at The New York University – in order to demonstrate his hydrogen discoveries. “I set up a demonstration laboratory in a university to prove that the elements are not different substances but are differently conditioned pressures of motion – and that the structure of the atom is based upon the gyroscopic principle." — NYU University, see 1922.

Exact Date Unknown: A. Cressy Morrison separates oxygen from nitrogen – causing The Union Carbide Company to change its basis for producing hydrogen from coal gas instead of the electrolytic process.

Exact Date Unknown: Nikola Tesla and Walter Russell meet and discuss his cosmology. This must have happened between 1921 and 1943. Russell himself evidently exerted considerable energy for years urging the research labs of Union Carbide, Westinghouse, General Electric and others to verify his atomic findings.

1921-1946: Russell and “other notable figures of his time” continued The Twilight Club, their efforts culminating in notable service organizations like “The Rotary Club”, The Lions Club, The Boy Scouts of America, and many others. The Twilight Club stood up for a right of education, for minimum wages, "truth" in advertising and much more, getting big support from Adolph Ochs, the owner of the New York Times at that time.

1926: Russell publishes his two Periodic Tables of Elements. Russell publishes "The Universal One."

1930:  Russell publishes The Russell Genero-Radiative Concept; a revision of a portion of "The Universal One.

1927-1939: Walter Russell’s Lecture Series to Executives and Employees of I.B.M. (12 years) THINK: The First Principle of Business Success

1927: The Westinghouse Lamp Company provides Russell with full use of its facilities for gas transmutations – including their spectrum analyses. Russell takes up sculpting, at the age of 56, his first work being a bust of Thomas Edison. Russell publishes The Universal One.

July 21, 1930: The New York Times publishes an article of Russell’s, where he challenges the Newtonian theory of gravitation.

1931: Walter Russell turns the age of 60. January 30th, Walter Russell lives in the 450 East 50th Street, New York, N.Y. January 30th, H.H. Sheldon, from the Department of Physics of New York University, sends a letter to Walter Russell.

1934: Walter Russell publishes "The Sculptor Searches for Mark Twain’s Immortality." Walter Russell sculpting the Mark Twain Memorial.

1936: Russell lectures at The Astrologer’s Guild of America in June 1936 – published later as "The Electric Nature of the Universe" – a compact depiction of his Cosmology. (USP 1991) Russell publishes "The Self-Multiplication Principle," an excerpt from a talk. Russell writes a draft of an IBM presentation, entitled "United Industry for Universal Peace," for Thomas J. Watson, Sr. – Published in 2003 in "THINK: The First Principle of Business Success."

1939: Russell lecture “Space and the Hydrogen Age”, May 13th – at the annual convention of The Eastern Electronic Association (Hotel Pennsylvania, New York – published by USP October 1989).

1941: Walter Russell turns the age of 70. The American Academy of Sciences confers a doctorate to Walter Russell – (after several laboratories isolate the elements which he had foreseen: Deuterium, Tritium, Neptunium and Plutonium.

1942: Walter Russell works on the sculpture of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

1943: Russell writes “A Letter to a Friend” (Robert), later published in "Caring for your Physical and Spiritual Health."

1944: Russell publishes "The Immortality of Man." Russell publishes “Power Through Knowledge” – in the essay he references the term “New Age” “…this New Age philosophy of the spiritual re-awakening of man…”

Walter and Lao Russell (1946-1963)

1946: Russell gives a talk, adapted into "The Fifth Kingdom Man," by USP in 1991.June – Russell gives a talk, adapted into "Genius Inherent in Everyone" by USP in 1994.
Russell gives a talk - segments adapted into "The Secret of Working Knowingly with God," Published by USP in 1993. Glenn Clark publishes "The Man Who Tapped the Secrets of the Universe."

1947: Russell publishes "The Secret of Light."

1948: Russell marries Daisy Stebbing (Lao Russell). Walter & Lao Russell go on a honeymoon, whereupon Walter draws Landscape 1 and Landscape 2. Russell publishes "The Message of the Divine Iliad Volume 1."  Founded The University of Science and Philosophy – a home-study university, in Swannanoa, where the Russell paintings, sculptures and historical documents were on display for 50 years.

1949: Russell publishes "The Message of the Divine Iliad Volume 2." Russell publishes "The Book of Early Whisperings" (sometimes placed as published in 1920).

1950: Walter & Lao Russell publish "The Home Study Course" (first edition).

1950s: Walter Russell gives a series of lectures in the mid 1950s to classes he conducted at Swannanoa. USP releases "Final Lecture Series." Walter Russell is unable to repeat his transmutation experiment while at Swannanoa in the 1950’s, according to scientist Dr. Shigeo Okubo, who was working with him for some reason not explained.

1951: Walter Russell turns the age of 80 – The Lecturer Address by Dr. Walter Russell At Portsmouth, Va. Armed Forces Day Celebration, May 19th, 1951, on his 80th birthday – in front of highly ranked members of the U.S. Military – talk is published as "The Dawn of a New Day in Human Relations" in 1991 by USP. Russell lecture "Caring For Your Physical and Spiritual Health" – adapted from a talk given at Swannanoa in August, 1951 (published by USP in 1994)

1953: Russell re-publishes The Home Study Course in Universal Law, Natural Science and Living Philosophy. 13th February, An Open Letter to The World of Science – sent to 350 members of our National Academy of Science and Royal Society of London, 100 Universities and 300 leading newspapers. Russell conducts a lecture series, part of which has been released as "Living a Cosmic Life from the Mind," which includes answers to questions from participating students. With the immediacy of spontaneous replies, the responses capture Walter Russell’s wit, wisdom, and depth of understanding of scientific and philosophical questions.

1954: Walter & Lao Russell publish Scientific Answer to Human Relations. August: Walter & Lao Russell publish “Newsletter of the University of Science and Philosophy”: “It will not take many years to utterly destroy the encircling protective walls which surround this planet and protect the earth from burning up by the sun’s hot rays."

1955: Walter & Lao Russell publish The World Crisis – Its Explanation and Solution. Lao Russell publishes "God Will Work With You But Not For You."

1956: Walter & Lao Russell publish The One-World-Purpose. Walter Russell talks to a group of students at Swannanoa, explaining the far-reaching effects of the efforts of the poet-philosophers who established the Twilight Club and the University of Science and Philosophy’s historic connection with that inspired group. {Consult the history of the University in The Twilight Manifesto) Released by USP as "The Twilight Club Story."

1957: Russell revises, in co-authorship with Lao Russell, "The Home Study Course" (second edition). Russell publishes, in co-authorship with Lao Russell, "Atomic Suicide."

1958: Walter Russell draws the scientific diagram “The Science of the Future is based upon God – the Creator.” Walter Russell draws the scientific diagram ”Nature’s Method of Creating Power.” Gravity Amplifying Compression Cubes which constitute the Nine Octaves of the Elements. Walter Russell draws the scientific diagram “The Cube and the Sphere are the Sole Working Tools of Creation."

1959: Fall – General Chapman, Colonel Fry, Major Sargent, Major Cripe, and others from NORAD in Colorado Springs, attend a meeting at Swannanoa, at the invitation of Walter Russell. At the meeting, Russell explains the workings of a device he proposes to build, to take advantage of the vacuum state energy, and the two directional movement of energy from gravitation, (generation), to radiation, (degeneration). During the following year, Russell, his wife, Lao, and their assistants build the device. The prototype consists of two sets of dual and magnetically-sexed coils.

1959-1962: Walter Russell draws scientific drawings explaining science and radiation.

1962: Russell revises, in co-authorship with Lao Russell, "The Home Study Course" (third edition).1963: Walter Russell, shortly before his death, paints his last painting called Last Painting. May 18th – Russell is still editing “A New Concept of the Universe: A Brief Treatise on the Russell Cosmogony.”

1963: May 19th - Walter Russell re-folds (passes on) (92th Birthday, in Waynesboro, VA).

After Walter Russell’s Refolding (1963- today)

1966: Lao Russell publishes "Love" – a Scientific and Living Philosophy of Love and Sex.

1971: Secret of Light 2nd edition.

1972: Lao Russell publishes "Why You Cannot Die!" Reincarnation Explained.

May 1988: Lao Russell re-folds into the universe (passes on)

1989: USP releases "A New Concept of the Universe." October – USP releases "Space and the Hydrogen Age."

1992-1998: USP “Russell Group” published a quarterly magazine called "Fulcrum" - The Science Journal of The University of Science And Philosophy.

1998:  The USP officially ends it's presence at Swannanoa.  The art, sculptings, paintings, drawings and personal effects are put into storage.  Papers, pictures, letters and various correspondences are archived (archives).

2004:  Michael Hudak assumes the Presidency.

2014:  October through September of 2015, four sculptures and six scientific paintings by Dr. Russell were on display at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland.

2015: Board of Directors hires Matt Presti as Director of Operations. New releases of Transmutator schematics, Optical Dynamo Generator diagrams and new Scientific Drawings never before seen; formation of the Science and Research Committee; new USP Webmaster (Ramu Shages), website and restart of USP newsletters; organization of warehouse and inventory; new series INNERVIEWS started.

2016:  Matt Presti assumes the Presidency and forms the Alumni Committee to oversee student events and planning of annual Homecomings.  USP Homecoming - September 17th & 18th, Afton mountain, Virginia.

2017:  Matt Presti forms the Museum and Art Committee tasking it with the mission of finding a new location close to Swannanoa where the 40 tons of art and sculpture will be displayed.  Darren Colomb was hired as Chief Science Officer to continue the scientific work of Dr. Walter Russell in order to construct new power multiplication generators and applicable technologies that will help transition mankind's dependency on fossil fuels and usher in a new age of transmutation for the uplift of mankind in general.  USP Homecoming - October 7th & 8th, at The Historic Wayne Theatre, Waynesboro, VA.  Official fundraising campaign kicks off for the Museum and Art effort.

2018:  New location for the Russell Museum and headquarters for the University of Science and Philosophy is acquired through the gracious generosity of a benefactor on the Board of Directors, William C. Cranwell.  Seven dedicated Russell students moved an approximate 64 tons of materials equating to 11 semi-trailers from the warehouse in Crimora, VA to the new location at 518 W. Main Street in downtown Waynesboro, VA in only nine days.  Museum and Art Committee dissolved after fulfilling task.  Organization of the new building taking place with the goal of a Grand Opening in 2019.  

2019:  Nine months after moving into 518 W. Main Street, the University of Science and Philosophy and new Russell Museum opened its physical doors for the first time in 21 years on July 4th, Independence Day.   The soft opening was followed by the Grand Opening November 1st and subsequent Homecoming, November 2nd and 3rd.  

2020:  The USP achieved record book sales.  USP operations continued unabated despite global interruptions due to novel coronavirus restrictions.  The University continued in its mission of providing spiritual growth and character development to millions of students worldwide in over 65 countries.  The Third Edition of the Home Study Course was once again made available to the world and the fourth edition discontinued.  USP began Home Study Course Classes and the Guest Speaker Series at the Mark Twain Meeting Room.

2021:  Scholarship Committee was formed on March 1st to distribute awards from the William and Ellen Cranwell Endowment Fund.

2022: New program called The Russell Experience started, led by Kimberly Faith. The third-edition of the Home Study Course was re-released with enhanced and colorized images.

2023:  Richard Dulaney assumed the role of President in August. Margaret Ruhe became Vice President in November. The Deluxe Edition of The Home Study Course was published.

2024: Visiting Artist Gallery room was added to the Russell Museum and hosts local artists with new exhibitions several times a year. Curated by JC Armbruster.

2025: Swannanoa Guest House renovations completed and opened to the public for short term rentals. New website completed and launched. Atomic Suicide? and The Universal One were printed in paperback.

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