Back when there was no such thing as social media, and getting likes and views meant waiting for the paper, early photographers would take photos without the mindset of garnering emojis. It was the early days of photography. From the blurry and grainy, to clear black and white, and on to colored photos, take a look at some of the oldest photographs on record.
1. First Reliably Dated Daguerreotype
French artist and photographer, Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre, introduced his work in 1839. The daguerreotype is not flexible and rather heavy, with only the wealthy able to afford it. They have since become scarce. Good luck taking a selfie.
Source:
Wikimedia
2. First Photograph With A Human In It
Another daguerreotype, this is the earliest photograph showing a living person. It is a view of Boulevard du Temple in 1838, Paris, France. The exposure lasted for several minutes. Look at the two men near the bottom left corner, one having his boots polished by the other. It’s like they wanted to be photographed.
Source:
Wikimedia
3. Oldest Surviving Photograph Of A Woman
You are looking at Dorothy Catherine Draper. It was taken in 1839 or 1840 by John William Draper. The photo was shot in his Washington Square studio at the New York University in the first year of Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre’s announcement in Paris of his invention of the daguerreotype process. John took the chance and snapped a photo of his sister.
Source:
Wikimedia
4. First Self-Portrait Photograph
Dated 1839, “Robert Cornelius, head-and-shoulders [self-]portrait, facing front, with arms crossed” is the first self-portrait. No Instagram back then but he must have been all over the news. The first trending selfie ever? Who knows.
Source:
Wikimedia
5. First Hoax Photograph
“Hippolyte Bayard, Self‐Portrait as a Drowned Man 1840”. It didn’t take long for someone to think of using photography to elicit reactions. He wanted to go “viral”. Fast forward to 2021 and he’s still famous.
Source:
Wikimedia
6. First Photograph Of The Moon
John William Draper took this photo of the moon on March 26, 1840 from the rooftop observatory at New York University. Imagine having to lug all that equipment to the rooftop just to get that one perfect shot. Well, “perfect”. Still, it’s the first astronomical photograph.
Source:
Wikimedia
7. Oldest Photograph Of A US President
Philip Haas took this rather impressive photo of President John Quincy Adams in either 1843 or 1847. The President was much older here. He passed away on February 23, 1848. He certainly knew how to pose.
Source:
Wikimedia
8. First Photograph Of The Sun
This Daguerreotype image of the Sun was taken on 2 April 1845 at 9:45 in the morning by Hippolyte Fizeau and Léon Foucault. Must have been a quick breakfast. It’s incredible to see sunspots in an old photo though.
Source:
Wikimedia
9. Oldest Photograph Of New York City
This photo of a New York estate which was then known as old Bloomingdale Road and referred to as a continuation of Broadway was shot in 1848. Must have been nice to see New York without cars and cellphones.
Source:
Wikimedia
10. Oldest Photograph Of People Drinking
This photo dated 1844 shows David Octavius Hill on the right, sharing a drink and a joke with James Ballantine and Dr George Bell. Bell was one of the commissioners of the Poor Law of 1845. He authored Day and night in the wynds of Edinburgh. Ballantine was a writer and stained-glass artist, the son of an Edinburgh brewer. Just friends sharing a few drinks and a lot of jokes.
Source:
Wikimedia
11. Oldest Known Picture Of A Native American Village
This Cheyenne village at Big Timbers, in present-day Colorado was taken during the Frïemont Expedition in 1853. It is a daguerreotype identified by Solomon Carvalho of a Plains Indian village in Kansas Territory. Carvalho was an avid explorer, painter and photographer.
Source:
Wikimedia
12. First Color Photograph
The Tartan Ribbon, taken by James Clerk Maxwell in 1861. Photographer Thomas Sutton took the photo three times, each with a different filter (red, green, or blue-violet) over the lens. The photographs were developed and printed on glass. Projected onto a screen with three different projectors, each were equipped with the same color filter used to photograph it. Superimposing on a screen revealed the colors.
Source:
Wikimedia
13. Oldest Aerial Photograph
“Boston, as the Eagle and the Wild Goose See It” must have wowed so many people when they saw this shot for the first time. James Wallace Black was known for experimentation and innovation. He took this photo of Boston from a hot-air balloon at 1,200 feet (8 plates of glass negative; 10 1/16 x 7 15/16 in).
Source:
Wikimedia
14. First Colored Landscape Photograph
Louis Ducos du Hauron took this colored photo of Agen, France in 1877. Cathédrale Saint-Caprais d’Agen stands out in the photo. He was the pioneer of colored photography, publishing his ideas in Les couleurs en photographie, solution du problème.
Source:
Wikimedia
15. First High-Speed Photographic Series
Filmed in 1878 by Edward Muybridge, this Race Horse was the first film ever. This was in 1878, where a series of photos taken in Palo Alto, California used multiple cameras to capture motion with his zoopraxiscope. This series of amazing photos resulted in the earliest forms of videography.
16. First Photograph Of A Tornado
This took a lot of bravery, and even a lot more whiskey. Having to carry all that weight around to capture a photo of a tornado must have had Adams’ friends worried sick. Those tornadoes can rip a house off clean.
Source:
AA Adams/Weatherwise
17. First “Moving Picture”
Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince used a Le Prince single-lens camera from 1888. This “film” was in the garden of the Whitley family house in Oakwood Grange Road, Roundhay, a suburb of Leeds, Yorkshire, Great Britain. It shows Adolphe Le Prince (Le Prince’s son), Mrs. Sarah Whitley, (Le Prince’s mother-in-law), Joseph Whitley and Miss Harriet Hartley. 2 seconds of immortality.
18. First Photograph On A Camera
The View from the Window at Le Gras was the first successful permanent photograph created by Nicéphore Niépce in 1827, in Saint-Loup-de-Varennes. There was a lot of sunlight illuminated by the buildings on both left and right sides.
Source:
Wikimedia
19. First Photograph Of Lightning
William Nicholson Jennings (1860–1946) was a photographer from Philadelphia in the 1890s. He experimented with color and lighting but it is this shot of lightning that must have taken his breath away. It’s easy to do so today what with modern technology, but in the late 1800’s, Jennings must have made headlines.
Source:
William Jennings/Franklin Institute
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