On this day in history

[Chris Dodkin]

On this day (August 19) in 1839, France announced that artist Louis Daguerre (1787-1851) had invented the first photographic process, Daguerreotype, and publicly presented it as a “free gift to the world”.

Portrait of Louis Daguerre (1787-1851)

Date 1844
Medium daguerreotype
Photographer Jean-Baptiste Sabatier-Blot (1801-1881)

The French physicist developed the process for transferring photographs onto silver-coated copper plates. His discovery was made by an accident, according to the writer Robert Leggat, who said Daguerre put an exposed plate in a chemical cupboard in 1835 only to later find it have developed a latent image.

Louis Jacques Daguerre's first surviving daguerreotype image, of a collection of plaster casts on a window ledge, which he produced on a silver plate, in 1837

Abraham Lincoln, Congressman-elect from Illinois. Three-quarter length portrait, seated, facing front

Shepherd, Nicholas H., photographer.

[Springfield, Ill., 1846 or 1847]

quarter plate daguerreotype ; plate 4 1/4 x 3 1/4 in.

 

[Brian Moore]

When I look at the early photos, whether they be Dags or tintypes or ambrotypes or whatever (because keep in mind, the heyday of the Daguerrotype was rather short--I think by about 1860 it had been supplanted) I can't help but feel I've been transported. Its an especially powerful feeling the older the photo is.

Thanks for posting this one, Chris.

 

[Pete Askew]

Thanks Chris.

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Well reminded. I've never been face to face with a Dag, but I did see a BBC programme about them, and the quality looked stunning - much better than the same image in a book. They really do seem magical.

 

[Hamish Gill]

That photo of the dolls heads reminds me of something I have seen recently... He was obviously copying someone else that pesky Daguerre!

 

[Pete Askew]

Or maybe they are the same dolls!

 

[Hamish Gill]

... Can you imagine what he would think if he read DPR

- - - Updated - - -

Or maybe they are the same dolls!

Yeah, that's creepy ...

 

[Julian de'Courcy]

Sadly human nature has not changed, I suspect they had their own version of DPR down the pub. Who's got the biggest hoe or the longest parsnip.

 

[Brian Moore]

the biggest hoe or the longest parsnip.

lol. (This made me think that the word "euphemism" must be of French origin,...but it's actually Greek.)