Maker/Artist
Bell, William H.
American photographer, 1830-1910
William H. Bell had a long and varied career in photography. In 1848 he entered into a partnership with his brother-in-law in Philadelphia; the pair operated a daguerreian studio for two years, until Bell began to work on his own, at times still collaborating with others. A veteran of the Mexican War, Bell joined the Union Army and, after fighting in the battles of Antietam and Gettysburg during the American Civil War, he was appointed chief photographer of the Army Medical Museum in Washington, D.C. He set up a studio in Philadelphia, and in 1872 Lieutenant George Wheeler, engineer of the fourth United States Geological Survey, commissioned Bell to accompany him as photographer on an expedition in Arizona. His field experience led to later jobs as photographer for the Pennsylvania railroad and with an expedition to Patagonia.
