William Bell (photographer)
| William H. Bell | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 1830 Liverpool, England |
| Died | January 28, 1910 (aged 79–80) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Relatives | William H. Rau (son-in-law) |
William H. Bell (1830 – January 28, 1910) was an English-born American photographer, active primarily in the latter half of the 19th century. He is best remembered for his photographs documenting war-time diseases and combat injuries, many of which were published in the medical book, Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion, as well as for his photographs of western landscapes taken as part of the Wheeler expedition in 1872. In his later years, he wrote articles on the dry plate process and other techniques for various photography journals.
Bell was born in Liverpool, England, in 1830, but immigrated to the United States with his parents as a young child. After his parents were killed in a cholera epidemic, he was raised by a Quaker family in Abington, Pennsylvania, outside of Philadelphia. In 1846, at the outbreak of the Mexican-American War, Bell traveled to Louisiana and joined the 6th Infantry.
After the end of the war in 1848, Bell returned to Philadelphia, and joined the daguerreotype studio of his brother-in-law, John Keenan. In 1852, he opened his own studio on Chestnut Street, and would operate or co-manage a photographic studio in downtown Philadelphia for much of the remainder of his life. In 1862, following the outbreak of the Civil War, Bell enlisted in the First Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, and saw action the battles of Antietam and Gettysburg.
After the war, Bell joined the Army Medical Museum (now the National Museum of Health and Medicine) in Washington, D.C., as its chief photographer. He spent much of 1865 making photographs of soldiers with various diseases, wounds, and amputations, many of which were published in the book, Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion. He also took portraits of dignitaries visiting the museum, and photographed Civil War battlefields. In 1867, he returned to Philadelphia, where he purchased the studio of James McClees.
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