Maker/Artist
Rau, William Herman
American photographer, 1855-1920
Born 19 January 1855; died 19 November 1920. In 1874 Rau obtained a position with the United States Government Expedition to document the transit of Venus. In 1877 he formed a partnership with his father-in-law William Bell, a survey photographer. Rau purchased Bell's stereograph company in 1877, and operated it under his own name until it was purchased by Underwood and Underwood in 1901. In 1881 Rau photographed in Colorado and New Mexico. He also travelled to Egypt to photograph monuments in the 1880s. Rau was appointed in 1890 as the official photographer of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and appointed in 1895 as the official photographer of the LeHigh Valley Railroad to document views along their lines. Rau also photographed the Johnstown, Pennsylvania flood and the 1904 Baltimore fire. He was associated with the Photographic Society of Philadelphia, the American Lantern Slide Interchange, the Photographic Exchange Club of Philadelphia and the Detroit Publishing Company. American landscape photographer, Philadelphia.
