| 1854 | Europe • Great Britain
| Philip Henry Delamotte photographs the opening ceremony of the Crystal Palace at Sydenham. This is the culmination of his study of the entire rebuilding process and is one of the first examples of photojournalism. (10 June 1854)
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| 1854 | Europe • Great Britain
| Ambrotypes (collodion positives) make their first appearance having being invented by Frederick Scott Archer (1813-1857) with the assistance of Peter Fry. Being a negative on a glass base they were cheaper than the Daguerreotype but retained the clarity of detail. |
| 1854 | Europe • Great Britain | George Swan Nottage (1823-85) founds the London Stereoscopic Company. The company has the motto "a stereoscope in every home" and within a few years boasts over 100,000 views in circulation. |
| 1854 | Europe • Great Britain | First public meeting to found the Photographic Society of London.
"A number of Gentlemen engaged in Photographic pursuits having met together at different periods of the Spring and Autumn last year, formed themselves into a provisional Committee, with a view of organizing a Society of those to whom such a re-union would be acceptable. The labours of this Committee were carried on until the beginning of the present year, when it was determined to call a Public Meeting, for which purpose Circulars were issued on behalf of the Committee by Mr Roger Fenton, the Honorary Secretary, and Advertisements were inserted in the Papers....
A Public Meeting to inaugurate this Society will be held at the house of the Society of Arts, John Street, Adelphi, on THURSDAY, the 20th January, at 4 pm."
[From the Journal of the Photographic Society of London on the founding of the society. The first Committee of the Society included John Dillwyn Llewelyn, Rev Calvert Jones and Philip Delamotte.] (20 January 1854) |
| 1854 | Europe • France | Société Française de Photographie is founded based upon the earlier Société Héliographique which had been founded in 1851. |
| 1854 | North America • USA | W. & F. Langenheim make the first American stereographs. |
| 1854 | North America • USA
| James Ambrose Cutting receives a US patent for the ambrotype process, known as the bromide patent. The name ambrotype comes from the Greek ambrotos meaning immortal. |
| 1854 | North America • USA
| Southworth & Hawes are issued a patent (No: 11,304) for taking daguerreotypes for stereoscopes. (11 July 1854)
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| 1855 | North America • USA
| George Robinson Fardon takes photographs for the album San Francisco Album. Photographs of the Most Beautiful Views and Public Buildings of San Francisco (ca. 1855). This album of albumenized salt prints is published by Herre & Bauer and has the distinction of being the first album of photographs of any American city.
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| 1856 | North America • USA
| Neff's Patent for Melainotype plates. (19 February 1856) |
| 1856 | Europe • Great Britain | John Benjamin Dancer applies for a patent for a stereoscopic camera (patent 2064, applied for: 1856-09-05, granted: 1857-02-27), allowing both images to be taken at the same time. Sets of stereographs quickly become popular. |
| 1856 | North America • Canada | William Notman commences his stereographic photographs of the city of Montreal. |
| 1857 | Europe • Great Britain | Photography by Lady Elizabeth Eastlake is published in the London Quarterly Review. |
| 1857 | Europe • Great Britain
| Queen Victoria purchases the allegorical photomontage The Two Ways of Life by Oscar Gustave Rejlander at the Art Treasures Exhibition in Manchester. [Read about] |
| 1857 | North America • USA
| Alexander Beckers of New York City patents a stereo-viewer with a revolving mechanism which allows multiple views of different types to be inspected sequentially by turning a knob. (7 April 1857) |
| 1858 | Europe • France
| Nadar takes the first aerial photograph from a balloon over Paris. |
| 1858 | North America • USA | William & Frederick Langenheim publish their American Stereographic Views. |
| 1858 | Europe • Great Britain
| The first book illustrated with original stereographs is published in London. The book by the astronomer Charles Piazzi Smyth is Teneriffe, an Astronomer's experiment: or, specialities of a residence above the clouds. |
| 1859 | Europe • France | Emperor Napoleon III of France departing for the Austro-Sardinian War in Italy with his army stops at the studio of André Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri to have his portrait taken. Although Disderi had the patent for carte-de-visite from 1854 this incident creates the publicity for a craze for photographic visiting cards that sweeps across the world. Whilst this makes for a good story that is often repeated subsequent research indicates that it is probably false. (May 1859) |
| 1859 | North America • USA | Blondin crosses the Niagara Falls on a tightrope and is photographed by William England for the London Stereoscopic Co. The stereocard becomes the most popular they ever published selling over 100,000 copies. |
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