19 of the World's Oldest Photos Reveal a Rare Side of History

Source: https://www.livescience.com/60387-ol...otographs.html

It's often said that a photo is worth a thousand words, touching people at a deeper level than even the best, most eloquent, writing. Even the world's oldest photographs, those that may seem so very distant from today's high-tech society, may tug at your heart strings or give you a sense of belonging. Here, Live Science looks back at 20 historical photos, shot between the 1820s and 1860s, that may make you look at history, and the world, just a little bit differently. Taking the medal for the oldest known photo ever shot may seem underwhelming at first glance, but look a little longer and you may be amazed.

The oldest-photo title goes to ...



This image may not look like much, but this is the world's oldest photo, shot in 1826 by Joseph Nicephore Niépce outside a window of his estate at Saint-Loup-de-Varennes, France. Niépce used a pewter plate covered with a mixture that included bitumen and water. Niépce put the plate inside a camera and over a period of many hours (perhaps two days) the light hardened some of the bitumen on the plate that was in view of architectural features such as buildings. The unhardened parts were then washed away to produce this image. If you look closely you can see faint outlines of where a building or architectural feature is. This photography technique was called "heliographic" by Niépce.


Louis Daguerre



The heliographic technique developed by Niépce produced poor photos that were not economical to produce. It wasn't until Niépce teamed up with Louis Daguerre in the 1830s that a more effective photography technique was developed; this one used silver iodide plates and mercury fumes. The new technique took on the name "Daguerretype," after Daguerre. Niépce died in 1833 when the new technique was still being developed. This Daguerretype shows Daguerre.


Early image



Taken in 1837, this photo showing several plaster casts is one of the earliest images taken by Louis Daguerre using his Daguerretype technique. He kept the technique secret until 1839, when the French government awarded him a lifetime pension in exchange for him revealing how his photos were taken.


View from Louis Daguerre's Home



Shot in 1838, this picture shows a view taken by Louis Daguerre from his home. The early Daguerreotypes, as the images taken using Daguerre's techniques would come to be called, required a long exposure time, making it difficult to capture moving people or objects. It was also difficult to take decent pictures in conditions that did not have excellent lighting.


Oldest picture of a living person



This image of the Boulevard du Temple in Paris was taken in 1838 by Louis Daguerre. If you look closely on the bottom left, you can see a man polishing the boot of another individual. Exposure times were lengthy at the time this image was taken, and people who moved fast could not be captured using photography. Only the person getting their boots polished and the polisher stayed still long enough to be seen in the photo. This picture is often credited as being the first to show a living person.


Oldest selfie?



Robert Cornelius, an American photographer, took this self-portrait in an outdoor yard in Philadelphia in October 1839. At this stage, daguerreotypes needed a long exposure time, making it difficult to take pictures of people (since they had to remain still for so long). Cornelius likely had to stand still for a few minutes while his camera finished taking his picture. This could be the world's first selfie.


First photo of the moon



Shot by English scientist and historian John William Draper in 1840, this is one of the earliest attempts to photograph the moon. Taking a photo at night under poorly lit conditions was a difficult task at the time, something that can be seen in the poor quality of this image. Later, in 1850, Draper and astronomer William Cranch Bond created a daguerreotype of the star Vega, part of the constellation Lyra, according to the American Physical Society.


First photo of sitting president



The earliest daguerreotype of a sitting U.S. president shows William Henry Harrison who died on April 4, 1841, after just 30 days in office, possibly due to pneumonia. That daguerreotype, captured at the start of Harrison's presidency, is now missing. The image shown here is a daguerreotype that was shot in 1850 and shows a life-like painted portrait of Harrison.


Oldest surviving photo of U.S. president



This photo of John Quincy Adams, who served as U.S. president from 1825 to 1829, was taken by Philip Haas at his studio in Washington, D.C., in March 1843 — after Adams had left office. Adams reportedly gave the photo to an ally in Congress, Vermont Rep. Horace Everett, according to a report in the New York Times. It was apparently kept in the Everett family and only recently resurfaced. This picture, called a half plate and measuring about 5 by 4 inches (13 by 10 centimeters) will be auctioned at Sotheby's in October 2017 and is expected to fetch between $150,000 and $250,000.


Earliest-known photo of Lincoln



Taken in 1846 or 1847, this photo shows Abraham Lincoln shortly after he was elected from Illinois to the U.S. Congress. At the time, the 37-year-old Congressman-elect was a frontier lawyer in Springfield, Illinois. According to the Library of Congress, the photo is attributed to Nicholas H. Shepherd, something indicated by Gibson W. Harris, a law student in Lincoln's office from 1845 to 1847. Lincoln's son Robert said he thought the photo was taken in St. Louis or Washington, D.C., the Library of Congress noted. In 1861, Lincoln became president and led the United States through the Civil War.

Lincoln in 1864



This picture of President Abraham Lincoln was taken in 1864, when the U.S. Civil War was raging on. The stress and wear of the war can clearly be seen on Lincoln's face. Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865, at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C., during a performance of the comedy "Our American Cousin." He was shot just as the U.S. Civil War was coming to an end.


Battle of Antietam



The Battle of Antietam was fought in Maryland in September 1862, producing horrific casualties on both sides of the U.S. Civil War. This image shows dead Confederate soldiers on part of the battlefield. Photography would be heavily used during the Civil War, allowing for people far away from the battlefield to see pictures of the carnage and destruction. Before the development of photography, those not at a battle had to rely on written reports and illustrations to learn about the events.


The fall of Fort Sumter



By the Civil War, new photography techniques meant that daguerreotypes had fallen out of use. Here, Alma A. Pelot created this stereoscopic photograph, in which two photos taken from slightly different angles give a 3D effect when viewed together. The photos, showing Fort Sumter, were printed on albumen silver paper. The photograph shows Fort Sumter after it was taken by the Confederacy in 1861. The fall of Fort Sumter effectively marked the beginning of the U.S. Civil War, a conflict that would be widely photographed.


The uprising in France



This photo shows hastily created barricades around the rue Saint-Maur in Paris on June 25, 1848, during what is sometimes called the June Days uprising. During this brief uprising, which lasted a few days, workers rebelled against the French government's plans to curtail a public works project, a move that would eliminate their jobs. Thousands of people were killed in the uprising.


Early photo of human conflict



A photo showing American general John E. Wool and his staff riding through Saltillo, Mexico, in early 1847 after his troops captured the city during the American-Mexican war. The war was fought between 1846 and 1848 and was one of the earliest human conflicts recorded using photography. The United States took Mexico City during the war, and, in the treaty that followed, Mexico conceded uncontested control over California and what is now the American southwest to the United States.


First solar eclipse photo



This appears to be the first photo of a solar eclipse ever shot. It was taken by Johann Julius Friedrich Berkowski on July 28, 1851, at the Royal Observatory in Königsberg (now Kaliningrad), Prussia. Before this daguerreotype, photographers apparently had trouble capturing any good images of the eclipse — many of the photos were over- or under-exposed. This daguerreotype is said to be the first of its kind to accurately show the sun's corona, according to a study published in 2005 in in the journal Acta Historica Astronomiae.


Great Chartist meeting



This shot shows a massive "Chartist" meeting that took place in London on April 10, 1848. Chartism was a movement in Britain for parliamentary reform that pressured the government to enact parliamentary reforms that would allow ordinary workers the right to vote and be represented in parliament. In 1848, several movements and revolutions swept across Europe that pressured governments in several countries to make reforms that would improve the lives of the working class.


Temple of Zeus



This photo shot in 1842 shows the Temple of Zeus in Athens, Greece. Ancient ruins were a popular subject matter for early photographers, who used the new technology to record the world's past. Modern-day researchers often study 19th-century photographs to learn how ruins, and the landscape around them, changed over time. This temple, dedicated to the god Zeus, was built during the fifth century B.C.


Early anesthesia



This image, a daguerreotype, taken in 1847 shows a team of doctors in Boston giving anesthesia to a man identified as Edward Gilbert Abbott by using a substance called ether. The development of anesthesia during the 19th century was a medical breakthrough that allowed for a wide variety of surgeries and procedures to be performed that could never have been done before.