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William Healey Dall was an American naturalist, malacologist, and scientific explorer whose work encompassed a broad range of disciplines, including malacology, paleontology, oceanography, anthropology, and zoology. As one of the first explorers of interior Alaska and a pioneering malacologist, Dall became one of the foremost authorities on living and fossil mollusks in the United States. Over the course of his career, he contributed more than 1,600 scientific papers and described hundreds of mollusk species, many of which remain cornerstones of the field. 

At the age of 18, Dall became a pupil of Louis Agassiz at Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology, where he studied under Agassiz’s mentorship and developed a particular fascination with mollusks, a nascent field at the time.  In 1865, Dall joined the Western Union Telegraph Expedition to find a telegraph route between North America and Russia. During this journey, he explored Alaska’s coastline and interior while collecting specimens of the region's flora and fauna. Following the death of his mentor, Robert Kennicott, Dall took over Kennicott’s work, extending his studies along the Yukon River. His explorations coincided with the U.S. purchase of Alaska in 1867, and Dall became one of the first scientists to document its geography, natural resources, and native cultures.

Between 1871 and 1874, Dall conducted surveys of the Aleutian Islands and Alaska’s coast as part of the United States Coast Survey. During these missions, he collected extensive biological, geological, and ethnographic specimens, many of which were sent to institutions such as Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology and the Smithsonian Institution. Dall published his findings in Alaska and Its Resources (1870), an influential account of the region’s geography, ecology, and indigenous peoples. 

After decades of exploration, Dall transitioned to a position with the United States Geological Survey in 1885, where he worked as a paleontologist. At the same time, he served as honorary curator of invertebrate paleontology at the U.S. National Museum (now the Smithsonian Institution), where he conducted groundbreaking studies on fossil and modern mollusks. Dall also participated in the 1899 Harriman Alaska Expedition, a multidisciplinary scientific survey of Alaska’s glacial coasts, alongside luminaries such as John Muir. 

Dall’s scientific expeditions extended beyond Alaska. He conducted fieldwork in the Pacific Northwest, Georgia, Florida, and Hawaii, producing comprehensive analyses of mollusk fauna and contributing to a deeper understanding of North America’s geology and paleontology.