William Culp Darrah

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.

Born in Reading, Pennsylvania, his was a specialist in paleobotany. Darrah was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, as well a member of Sigma Xi and the Botanical Society of America.

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.

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)