Bell, William, 1830-1910

• 1830: Born Liverpool, England
• 1848: Began photographic career working for his brother-in-law's daguerreotype studio in Philadelphia
• 1872: Served as photographer for the Wheeler Survey, West of the 100th Meridian
• 1910: Died in Philadelphia, Pa.

In 1872, William Bell, a photographer from Philadelphia, found employment on a survey team established by the Army and formally titled: "U.S. Geographical and Geological Explorations and Surveys West of the 100th Meridian, under the command of Lieutenant George M. Wheeler." Bell had been hired by Wheeler to replace Timothy O'Sullivan, another expeditionary photographer, who participated in the Wheeler survey of 1871 and returned in 1873.

Perhaps because William Bell participated in only one expedition, a limited amount of biographical information has been recorded for him, and that information is often vague. William Bell has most often been confused with another photographer Dr. William A. Bell (1841-1920) who served on the Palmer Expedition of 1867 for which William Jackson Palmer surveyed a route through the southwest for the Kansas Pacific Railroad.

William Bell may have fought in the US-Mexican War and for the Union in the Civil War.

Some sources have also indicated that William Bell was appointed chief photographer of the Army Medical Museum in Washington, D.C., where he may have made photographs of soldiers wounded in the Civil War.

From the guide to the William Bell Photographs, 1872, (David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University)