William Culp Darrah
William Culp Darrah was an American professor of biology at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania. He also had an interest in, and published several works on, 19th-century photography.
Born in Reading, Pennsylvania, his was a specialist in paleobotany. Darrah was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, as well a member of Sigma Xi and the Botanical [Society of America].
As an authority on the history of photography, he authored several books about 19th-century photo processes and photographers. As part of his interest in early photography, he assembled a collection of over 60,000 cartes-de-visite, which is now held at Penn State University.
He died in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
Selected bibliography
Biology
- Principles of paleobotany
- Textbook of paleobotany
- ''A critical review of the upper Pennsylvanian floras of eastern United States with notes on the Mazon Creek flora of Illinois''
Photography
- Stereo views, a history of stereographs in America and their collection
- A check list of Maine photographers who issued stereographs
- An Album of stereographs : or, Our country victorious and now a happy home : from the collections of William Culp Darrah and Richard Russack
- The world of stereographs
- ''Cartes de visite in ninteenth century photography''