First photo

This page was last updated on 2009-11-11

First photo

Although earlier photographs are known to have been taken, none have survived (although further research is currently being undertaken on a surviving image of a leaf, possibly made by Thomas Wedgwood (1771-1805) - see Kennedy, which includes a photograph of the image).

This is the oldest surviving photograph in the world. It is a photograph of a 17^th century Flemish engraving, showing a man leading a horse. It was made by Nicéphore Niépce (1765-1833), the French inventor of photography, in 1825, with his heliography process. The Bibliothèque nationale de France bought it for €450,000 in 2002, deeming it a "national treasure". [Niépce's first successful permananent heliographic image was of an engraving of Pope Pius VII. Made by means of bitumen of Judea on glass, it was accidentally smashed by General Poucet, to whom Niépce had presented it (see Gernsback).

First photo from nature

View from the Window at Le Gras (La cour du domaine du Gras) was the first successful permanent photograph from nature, created by Nicéphore Niépce in 1826 at Saint-Loup-de-Varennes.

Niépce captured the photo with a camera obscura focused onto a sheet of 20 × 25 cm oil-treated bitumen. Owing to the 8-hour exposure, sunlight illuminates the buildings on both sides.

After an unsuccessful trip to Britain to attempt to interest the Royal Society in the process, Niépce gave the photo to the botanist Francis Bauer. It was last publicly exhibited in 1898, and was thereafter forgotten. The collector Helmut Gernsheim brought the photo to prominence again in 1952. In 1973 the University of Texas acquired the plate from Gernsheim, and it is now on display at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center.

NB The image shown is from a print touched up by Gernsheim. More information, and a 2002 digital reproduction, may be found at The First Photograph.

First photo of a person

Boulevard du Temple, Paris, 3. Arondissement is the first ever photograph of a human being. The daguerreotype was taken in Paris by Louis Daguerre (1787-1851), in late 1838 or early 1839. It is of a busy street, but because exposure time was over ten minutes, the city traffic was moving too much to appear. The exception is a man in the bottom left corner, who stood still getting his boots polished long enough to show. Less discernible, but probably also visible, is the person doing the polishing.

First portrait photo of a person

Possibly the first (or the earliest surviving) photographic portrait image of a human ever produced, Robert Cornelius [1809-93], head-and-shoulders [self-]portrait, facing front, with arms crossed, approximate quarter plate daguerreotype, 1839 [Oct. or Nov.]. LC-USZC4-5001 DLC. Written on the paper backing is "The first light picture ever taken. 1839." The photograph, now at the Library of Congress, was taken outside his place of business on 8th Street between Market and Chestnut, in Philadelphia.

First photo, and first portrait photo, of a woman

This image of Dorothy Catherine Draper is a copy of the first (or earliest surviving) photograph of a woman. John William Draper (1811-82), professor of chemistry at the University of New York, built his own camera and made this portrait on the university roof in 1839, after a 65-second exposure. The sitter, his sister Dorothy, had her face powdered with flour in an early attempt to accentuate contrasts. The image is from the Westchester Archives.

The original daguerreotype is now held by the Spencer Museum of Art, in Lawrence, Kansas, on indefinite loan from the Kansas State Historical Society. An image of the daguerreotype itself (dated to 1840 by the Museum) may be found on the museum website; this graphically shows the damage caused by an attempt at cleaning it in 1934, described here.

Earliest-born person to be photographed

There is as yet no certainty as to the earliest-born human to be photographed, but the strongest contender at present appears to be Hannah Stilley Gorby (born about 1746, died 1840-1850). The original daguerreotype has been missing for some years, but this copy was printed in Alva Gorby's 1936 book The Gorby Family, History and Genealogy.

Earliest-born man to be photographed

Again, this is still an open question, but this is the current front-runner. Conrad Heyer (1749-1856) served in the American Continental Army, and crossed the Delaware with George Washington. This photograph was taken c. 1852.

This image - www.mainememory.net/item/13423 - is © Maine Historical Society; permission pending.

 

© 2009 Benjamin S. Beck

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If you know of any earlier examples, please contact me.

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