| 1839 | Europe • Great Britain
| Sir John Frederick William Herschel (1792-1871) presents his paper Note on the art of Photography, or The Application of the Chemical Rays of Light to the Purpose of Pictorial Representation to the Royal Society and this is the first time the word photography is used. (14 March 1839) |
| 1839 | Europe • France
| Details of the photographic process for creating Daguerreotypes is announced in France by François Arago, a widely respected member of the Académie des Sciences, at a meeting in Paris revealing the work of Louis-Jacques-Mande Daguerre and his inventions. In exchange for a state pension to Daguerre and the son of Niépce the process is given freely to the world. The process is taken up with enthusiasm and the period of Daguerreotypomania begins. (19 August 1839) |
| 1839 | Europe • France
| The diorama in Paris of Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre is destroyed by fire at the same time as he is showing his photographic discoveries to Samuel F.B. Morse. (8 January 1839) |
| 1839 | Europe • France
| François Arago (1786-1853) gives a brief announcement of the discovery of Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre of the daguerreotype at the Académie des Sciences in Paris. The work of Joseph Nicéphore Niépce is not credited in the announcement but this is rectified in the following days by Francis Bauer. (7 January 1839) |
| 1839 | Europe • France
| Gazette de France publishes the first announcement of the invention of photography. (6 January 1839) |
| 1839 | Africa • Egypt
| The first group to visit Egypt with a camera, supplied by Lerebours, were the painters Horace Vernet and Frédéric Goupil-Fesquet who made daguerreotypes. (6 November 1839) |
| 1839 | Europe • UK
| Mechanic's Magazine (vol. 32, no. 847, pp. 77-78) reprints an article from The Atheneum on "Patenting of M. Daguerre's Process in England". Louis-Jacques-Mande Daguerre patented his discovery in England but it was free to use elsewhere. (2 November 1839) |
| 1839 | North America • USA
| The transatlantic steamer Great Western docks in New York at 7 a.m., Sept. 10, 1839 bringing the French and English newspapers that announce the Daguerreotype and include the first instructions for their production. (10 September 1839) |
| 1839 | Europe • France
| Hippolyte Bayard holds the world's first exhibition of photographic prints when he displayed thirty of his works. (24 June 1839) |
| 1839 | Europe • Great Britain
| Francis West, a London optician, advertises the first camera on sale to the public. (June 1839) |
| 1839 | North America • USA
| D.W. Seager takes the first successful Daguerreotype in North America - the subject is St Paul's Church, New York. (16 September 1839) |
| 1839 | Europe • Great Britain
| Henry Fox Talbot submits his paper Some account of the Art of Photogenic Drawing, or the process by which natural objects may be made to delineate themselves without the aid of the artist's pencil at the Royal Society in London. (31 January 1839) |
| 1839 | North America • USA
| The American inventor Samuel Morse (1791-1872) meets with Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre in Paris and learns the Daguerreotype process. After returning to the USA he promotes the process and trains people including Mathew Brady (1823-1896) who becomes one of the most important American portrait photographers and records the American Civil War (1861-1865). (March 1839) |
| 1840 | North America • USA
| Alexander Simon Wolcott and John Johnson open the world's first Daguerreian Parlor in New York. (March 1840) |
| 1840 | Europe • Austria
| First lens designed specifically for photographic purposes by Hungarian-born Józeph Petzval (1807-1891). |
| 1840 | Europe • Great Britain
| 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 (1811-1882) takes the first Daguerrian plate showing the solar spectrum. |
| 1841 | Europe • Great Britain
| 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. (February 1841) |
| 1841 | Europe • Ireland
| 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. (23 October 1841) |
| 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. (August 1841) |
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