William Culp Darrah (1909 – 1989) 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.
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 (1960)
Textbook of paleobotany (1939)
A critical review of the upper Pennsylvanian floras of eastern United States with notes on the Mazon Creek flora of Illinois (1969)
Photography
Stereo views, a history of stereographs in America and their collection (1964)
A check list of Maine photographers who issued stereographs (1967)
An Album of stereographs : or, Our country victorious and now a happy home : from the collections of William Culp Darrah and Richard Russack (1977)
The world of stereographs (1977)
Cartes de visite in nin[e]teenth century photography (1981)