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| 1840 | North America - USA | Alexander Simon Wolcott and John Johnson open the world's first Daguerreian Parlor in New York. | 1840 | Europe - Austria | First lens designed specifically for photographic purposes by Hungarian-born Józeph Petzval (1807-1891). | 1840 | Europe - Great Britain Julia Margaret Cameron, 1867, 7 April, Sir John Frederick William Herschel, Baronet, Collingswood, Albumen print, Museum Folkwang, | John Herschel successfully fixes sensitized paper using his 1819 discovery of hyposulphite of soda dissolved in silver salts still used today called hypo. | 1840 | North America - USA John William Draper, 1840, Spectrograph, Daguerreotype, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, | John William Draper (1811-1882) takes the first Daguerrian plate showing the solar spectrum. | 1841 | Europe - Great Britain Antoine Claudet, 1844 (ca), William Henry Fox Talbot, Daguerreotype, British Library, | Henry Fox Talbot patents the calotype process. It is a negative-positive process that has advantages over the Daguerreotype positives of which there was only ever a single copy. Calotypes were also called Talbotypes though the inventor never approved of this. | 1841 | Europe - Great Britain | Henry Collen opens the first Calotype studio in London under a license from Henry Fox Talbot and uses the portraits as a starting point for miniatures. | 1841 | Europe - Ireland Beard Studio, 1860 (ca), Portrait of Richard Beard, Carte de visite, Private collection of Geoffrey Batchen, | The first Daguerreotype studio in Ireland opens in Dublin above "the Rotunda". It was probably under the auspices of Richard Beard but this is not certain. On 23rd April 1842 an advertisement appeared announcing that Le Chevalier Alexander Doussin Dubreuil had commenced practice at this address. | 1842 | Europe - France Noël Marie Paymal Lerebours, 1841-1842, Excursions daguerriennes : vues et monuments les plus remarquables du globe. (Title page, vol. 1) ([1841]-1842), [Excursions daguerriennes : vues et monuments les plus remarquables du globe], Title page - Aquatint, NYPL - New York Public Library, | Excursions Daguérriennes, by Noël Marie Paymal Lerebours is published; it is the first travel book illustrated with engravings from original daguerreotypes. | 1842 | Europe - Germany Hermann Biow, 1842, [The destruction of the Hamburg fire of 1842], Daguerreotype, Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte / Museum of Hamburg History, | The devastation of the Hamburg Fire is captured on daguerreotype plates by Hermann Biow and it is probably the first news event ever photographed. | 1842 | Europe - Great Britain Richard Beard, n.d., Signature of Daguerreotypist Richard Beard, Stereographica - Antique Photographica, | Richard Beard opens his public portrait studio for Daguerreotypes on the roof of the Royal Polytechnic Institution in London. | 1843 | Europe - Scotland Hill & Adamson, 1843 (ca), D.O. Hill, Salted paper print, George Eastman Museum, | The partnership of Hill & Adamson (David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson) forms in Scotland. They jointly produce outstanding portraits until the premature death of Adamson in 1848. | 1843 | North America - Mexico Unidentified photographer / artist, 1848, Izamal, Gigantic Head, Book illustration, Google Books, | John Lloyd Stephens (1805-1852) was one of the great explorers of the Mesoamerican archaeological sites of Yucatan in Mexico. For the discoveries he described in his book Incidents of Travel in Yucatan (1843) Dr. Cabot took daguerreotypes. | 1844 | North America - USA Mathew B. Brady, n.d., Business card for Brady's Daguerrean Galleries, Business card, Archives of Modern Conflict OR National Gallery of Canada, | Mathew Brady (1823–1896) establishes a photographic studio in Washington. | 1844 | Europe - Great Britain Henry Fox Talbot, 1844, Cover for The Pencil of Nature by William Henry Fox Talbot, [The Pencil of Nature], Book cover, Hans P. Kraus, Jr., Inc., | Henry Fox Talbot publishes the first part of The Pencil of Nature which is one of the first books containing photographs. It comes out in an instalment of six parts between 1844 and 1846 and contains 24 photographs in total. | 1844 | Asia - China Jules Itier, 1844, November, Groupe pris dans une rue de Canton, Daguerreotype, Musée français de la Photographie, | Jules Itier (1802-1877) with the French customs service on a commercial mission to China takes what may be the earliest photographs of Macao [Macau] and wrote:
"I spent the last two days capturing the most interesting features of Macau on daguerreotype; the people on the streets respond with greatest kindness to all my demands, and many Chinese allowed photographs to be taken of them, but I had to show them the inside of the apparatus and the object reflected on the polished glass." As the head of the French trade commission in China he takes a Daguerreotype of the signing of the Sino-French peace treaty. |
1845 | Europe - Great Britain Henry Fox Talbot, 1845, Book cover for "Sun Pictures in Scotland" by William Henry Fox Talbot, [Sun Pictures in Scotland], Book cover, St. Andrews University Library, Special Collections / The Photographic Collection, | Henry Fox Talbot publishes Sun Pictures in Scotland that includes locations associated with the novelist Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832). | 1845 | North America - USA William Langenheim, 1849-1851 (ca), Frederick Langenheim Looking at Talbotypes, Daguerreotype, Metropolitan Museum of Art, | Langenheim & Langenheim , the two brothers William and Frederick, take a panorama of Niagara Falls using five separate Daguerreotypes. | 1845 | Europe - France Armand Hippolyte Fizeau, 1864 (published), Fig. 13. M. Fizeau, Engraving, Google Books, | Armand Hippolyte Fizeau (1819-1896) working with Léon Foucault (1819-1868) takes the first photograph of the sun. | 1847 | Europe - Great Britain | The Calotype Club is founded in London. | 1847 | North America - USA | The African-American photographers Glenalvin and Wallace Goodridge establish their daguerreotype studio in York, Pennsylvania. | 1847 | North America - USA Thomas Easterly, 1847, 18 June (taken) 1874-1878 (cabinet card), Daguerreotype of a Streak of Lightning taken June 18th 1847 at 9 o'clock P.M. By T.M. Easterly St. Louis Mo., Cabinet card, Missouri Historical Society, | Thomas Easterly makes what may be the first ever photograph of a streak of lightning on a daguerreotype plate. | 1849 | Middle East Maxime Du Camp, 1850, Kalabscheh. Ptolémée Caesarion, [Egypte, Nubie, Palestine et Syrie, pl. 91], Papier salé d'après négatif papier, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Département des Estampes et de la Photographie, | Maxime Du Camp (1822–1894) sets out on an official mission to photograph the sites and monuments of Egypt, Palestine and Syria. | 1849 | Europe - Great Britain Maull & Polyblank, n.d., Scottish Physicist, Sir David Brewster (1781-1868), inventor of the refracting stereoscope and the Kaleidoscope. He is also credited with inventing the first twin lens stereoscopic camera., Carte de visite, Stereographica - Antique Photographica, | Sir David Brewster develops the lenticular stereoscope. | 1850 | Europe - Great Britain Richard Beard, 1861, The Oyster Stall, Book illustration, Google Books, | Henry Mayhew publishes London Labor and London Poor with wood engravings based on Daguerreotypes that were taken under the supervision of Richard Beard (1802-1885). | 1850 | Europe - France Victor Mottez (1809-1897, painter), 1859, Portrait of Louis-Désiré Blanquart-Evrard, Oil painting, Musée des Beaux-Arts, | Louis-Désiré Blanquart-Evrard perfects a process for making positive prints coated with albumen. This is one of the most popular types of photographic prints through the nineteenth century. | 1850 | North America - USA Unidentified photographer / artist, n.d., Untitled, Archives of Modern Conflict OR National Gallery of Canada, | The first issue of The Daguerreian Journal: devoted to the Daguerreian and Photogenic Arts is published in New York. It is the world's first photographic journal. | 1850 | Europe - France | Louis Jules Duboscq in Paris manufactures the first functioning stereoscopic viewer. | 1850 | North America - USA Mathew B. Brady, 1851, January, M. Brady, Magazine illustration, engraving, Google Books, | Mathew Brady publishes his collection A Gallery of Illustrious Americans. | 1851 | Europe - France | Missions Héliographiques established in France with Édouard Baldus, Hippolyte Bayard, Gustave Le Gray, Henri Le Secq and Auguste Mestral recording the architectural patrimony of France. | 1851 | Europe - Great Britain Frederick Scott Archer, 1855 (ca), Frederick Scott Archer, Albumen print, Creative Commons - Wikipedia, | Frederick Scott Archer publishes his invention of the wet collodion process in a copy of The Chemist. Although a more complex process than Daguerreotype it has finer detail and a faster exposure time. It was the basis for the ambrotype and the tintype that became popular later in the decade. | 1851 | Europe - France Victor Mottez (1809-1897, painter), 1859, Portrait of Louis-Désiré Blanquart-Evrard, Oil painting, Musée des Beaux-Arts, | Louis-Désiré Blanquart-Evrard (1802-1872) opens a photographic print making firm in Lille. The Maxime Du Camp work Egypte, Nubie, Palestine et Syrie that starts to appear in instalments from September 1851 onwards is the first book it produces the plates for. | 1851 | Europe - France unknown artist, 1858, 2 October (published), Jean-Baptiste-Louis Gros, Magazine illustration, Creative Commons - Wikipedia, | The Societé Héliographique is founded in Paris. Headed by Baron Jean-Baptiste-Louis Gros (1793-1870) the society includes Gustave Le Gray, Henri-Victor Regnault, Henri Le Secq and the painter Delacroix. | 1851 | Europe - France Eugene Piot, 1853, Florence: Santa Maria del Fiore. Détails du 1er et du 2e ordre. 1296 et 1425, [L'Italie Monumentale], Salted paper print, Ecole nationale supérieure des beaux-arts (ENSBA), | The photographs of Eugène Piot are used for the first French book illustrated with photographs - Italie Monumentale. | 1851 | Europe - Great Britain David Brewster, 1864 (published), Fig. 115 David Brewster, Engraving, Google Books, | Queen Victoria is presented with a deluxe stereoscope by David Brewster beginning the craze in stereographs. | 1853 | Europe - France Nadar, n.d., Nadar, Carte de visite, Archives of Modern Conflict OR National Gallery of Canada, | Nadar (Gaspard-Félix Tournachon) opens a photographic studio in Paris that rapidly becomes the leading portrait studio for the cultured elite of Parisian society. | 1853 | North America - USA George N. Barnard, 1853, July 5, Fire in the Ames Mills, Oswego, New York, Daguerreotype, 1/6 plate, with applied colour, George Eastman Museum, | Two photographs are taken of the burning Mills at Oswego, New York by George N. Barnard who would become one of the great photographers of the American Civil War (1861-1865). | 1853 | North America - USA Platt D. Babbitt, 1853, July, [Joseph Avery stranded on rocks in the Niagara River], Daguerreotype, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, | Platt D. Babbit photographs events leading up to the tragic death of Joseph Avery at Niagara Falls. Babbitt was awarded a monopoly to take Daguerreotypes at the Falls in 1853, using the Horseshoe Falls as his setting, and sells his plates to tourists. | 1853 | North America - USA Unidentified photographer / artist, 1854, Hancock House, Boston: An original Crystallotype or Sun Picture, Title page, Google Books, | Homes of American Statesman is published and is the first American book containing a photograph. The photograph is a tipped in salt print frontispiece of John Hancock's Boston house. | 1853 | Europe - Great Britain Roger Fenton, 1852, February, [Self-Portrait], Albumen silver print, from glass negative, Metropolitan Museum of Art, | Preliminary meetings are held with a view to forming the Photographic Society of London. The first public meeting takes place on 20th January 1854. Roger Fenton is the Honorary Secretary for the group and Charles Eastlake the first President. | 1853 | North America - USA Washington Lafayette Germon, n.d., Quarter plate Mascher Stereo Daguerreotype by W. L German, Philadelphia., Daguerreotype, 1/4 plate, Stereographica - Antique Photographica, | John Frederick Mascher of Philadelphia, USA patents a stereo viewing apparatus consisting of a case with a fold-out set of lenses. These are now known as Mascher stereo cases. | 1854 | Europe - France André Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri, n.d., André Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri, Carte de visite, Archives of Modern Conflict OR National Gallery of Canada, | André Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri is granted a patent for carte-de-visite. Eight poses were made on a single sheet and then they could be cut down to 2 1/4 x 3 1/2 inches and mounted on a 2 1/2 x 4 inch card.
His studio was established using the dowry of his wife Elizabeth who was also a photographer and his business partner. (McCauley, Elizabeth A., 1985, A.A.E. Disderi and the Carte De Visite Portrait Photograph, Yale University Press) |
1854 | Asia - India | Photographic Society of Bombay is founded | 1854 | Europe - Great Britain | At the first exhibition of the Photographic Society in London Roger Fenton explains the photographs to the royal party of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. | 1854 | North America - USA Fred Church, 1890, February, George Eastman on board S.S. Gallia, Albumen print, Kodak #2 snapshot, George Eastman Museum, | George Eastman (1854-1932) is born in Waterville, New York. | 1854 | Europe - Great Britain Philip Henry Delamotte, 1859 (ca), Statues of the Egyptian pharaoh Rameses II were copied from the temple of Abu Simbel, [Crystal Palace], National Monuments Record, English Heritage, | 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. | 1854 | Europe - Great Britain Isaac A. Rehn, 1855, Family Group, Ambrotype, 1/2 plate, mounted by Rehn's special process, George Eastman Museum, | 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.] |
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, 1856, Niagara Falls, Summer View, American Falls, from Hogsback, Goat Island, Stereographic lantern slide, hand-colored, Philadelphia Museum of Art, | W. & F. Langenheim make the first American stereographs. | 1854 | North America - USA Edward Anthony, n.d., Bottle of Developer based upon the patent of James A. Cutting used in the collodion process, Bottle, Archives of Modern Conflict OR National Gallery of Canada, | 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, 1854 (ca), River View with Seated Figure, Daguerreotype, stereo, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin, | Southworth & Hawes are issued a patent (No: 11,304) for taking daguerreotypes for stereoscopes. | 1855 | North America - USA George Robinson Fardon, 1855 (ca), View of a portion of the City and Bay, from Taylor street - in the distance the U.S. Hospital., [San Francisco Album. Photographs of the Most Beautiful Views and Public Buildings of San Francisco], Salt paper print, George Eastman Museum, | 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. | 1856 | North America - Canada William Notman, n.d., A stereocard within a stereocard, Stereocard, Stereoviews: Stereoviews and Fine 19th & 20th Century Antique Photographs, | William Notman commences his stereographic photographs of the city of Montreal. | 1856 | Europe - Great Britain John Benjamin Dancer, 1853 (ca), Self-portrait with Scientific Apparatus ?, Daguerreotype, stereo, National Gallery of Canada / Musée des beaux-arts du Canada, | 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 - USA 1856, 19 February, Wooden box of Melainotype Plates for Neff's Patent, 19th Feb, 1856, Packaging, Archives of Modern Conflict OR National Gallery of Canada, | Neff's Patent for Melainotype plates. | 1857 | Europe - Great Britain Hill & Adamson, 1844-1845 (ca), Elizabeth Rigby, later Lady Eastlake (1809-1893), Salted paper print from calotype negative, Cleveland Museum of Art, | Photography by Lady Elizabeth Eastlake is published in the London Quarterly Review. | 1857 | Europe - Great Britain Oscar Gustave Rejlander, 1857, Two Ways of Life, Photomontage, Source requested, | Queen Victoria purchases the allegorical photomontage The Two Ways of Life by Oscar Gustave Rejlander at the Art Treasures Exhibition in Manchester. | 1857 | North America - USA n.d., Alexander Beckers of New York City patented a stereo-viewer on April 7, 1857. It had a revolving mechanism which allowed multiple views of different types to be inspected sequentially by turning a knob., Stereo viewer, Archives of Modern Conflict OR National Gallery of Canada, | 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. | 1858 | Europe - France Honoré Daumier, 1862, 25 May, NADAR élevant la Photographie à la hauteur de l'Art. [NADAR elevating Photography to Art.], Lithograph, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Département des Estampes et de la Photographie, | 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 Charles Piazzi Smyth, 1858, Illustration from Teneriffe - An Astronomer's Experiment, by C. Piazzi Smyth., Stereo, Stereographica - Antique Photographica, | 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 André Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri, n.d., French photographer, André Adolphe Eugéne Disderi, Carte de visite, Stereographica - Antique Photographica, | 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. | 1859 | North America - USA William England, n.d., Blondin Crossing the Niagara River, [North America], Stereocard, hand-coloured, Stereographica - Antique Photographica, | 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. | 1859 | Europe - France | On Photography, a section of Charles Baudelaire’s review of the annual Salon, fiercely condemns the medium. | 1859 | North America - USA Silsbee, Case & Co., 1860 (ca), [Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1809-94], Carte de visite, cropped, NYPL - New York Public Library, | Oliver Wendell Holmes lauds “The Stereoscope and the Stereograph” in The Atlantic Monthly. He is the first to use the term stereograph. | 1859 | Europe - France | A group of artists and photographers, including Eugène Delacroix, Francis Wey and Gustave Le Gray succeed in getting photography included in the 1859 Paris Salon but the photography section has a separate entrance. | 1859 | Europe - UK | patents the first Panoramic Camera, appropriately called "The Sutton". The camera was at first produced by F. Cox and later by Thomas Ross (London). Thomas Sutton |