C. William "Doc" Horrell was born in 1918.  His interest in photography began in 1936 when his mother gifted him a $12 camera for high school graduation in Anna, Illinois.  He enrolled in Southern Illinois Normal University, studying sociology and physics while earning a bachelor’s degree in education.  His first photography job was in the campus museum.  Beginning in 1942, Horrell served at Scott Field near Belleville, Illinois and produced training films for the military during World War II.

In 1944, Horrell opened a photography studio in Anna and earned a master’s degree from the University of Illinois in 1949.  That same year he began employment with Southern Illinois University and remained there his entire professional career.  Horrell headed the school’s Photographic Service from 1949-1958, but spent summers working toward a doctorate in education at Indiana University, a degree that he completed in 1955.  In 1958, he was instrumental in starting the Printing and Photography department (later Cinema and Photography) at Southern Illinois University and accepted a faculty position with the university in 1959.  He was promoted to Professor in 1972 and taught classes in photojournalism, portraiture, documentary photography, and scientific photography up until his retirement in 1983.

In 1966, Doc began photographing Southern Illinois for the book The Land Between the Rivers, published by the SIU Press in 1973.  It was during this project that he first photographed the regions coal mining industry.  He continued photographing coal mines and miners until the mid 1980s, eventually amassing more than 700 images.  His coal photographs were later published by the SIU Press in the book Southern Illinois Coal: a Portfolio in 1995.  C. William Horrell died in 1989.