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Concept of the chemical action of light
Thomas Wedgewood presented along with Sir Humphrey Davy, to the Royal Institution of Great Britain a paper “An Account of Method of Copying Paintings upon Glass, and making profiles by the
Agency upon Nitrate of Silver”. The article is the first that published the concept of the chemical action of light. -
World's First Photograph
The world's first photograph—or at least oldest surviving photo—was taken by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in 1826. Captured using a technique known as heliography, the shot was taken from an upstairs window at Niépce's estate in Burgundy. -
"Boulevard du Temple" - First Photo of Human Beings
The exposure time for the image was around seven minutes, and although the street would have been busy with traffic and pedestrians, it appears deserted. Everything moving was too fast to register on the plate. The exception is the man at the lower-left who sat still long enough to appear in the photograph. The person cleaning his boots is also visible, although not as distinctly. -
Daguerreotype Camera Invented
Louis-Jacques-Mande Daguerre invented the daguerreotype in 1839. Within a few years, daguerreotype studios appeared in United States cities and the popularity of the medium grew through The 1850s. -
Daguerre applied for patent
Daguerre received his patent restricting the making of daguerreotypes in Britain to those who paid for the rights. This was a nationalistic move; the French government gave Daguerre a pension in return for details of the invention. -
U.S. hears about invention of photography
News of the invention of photography reached the US in 1839. -
Drowned Man
The Frenchman Hippolyte Bayard purportedly invented photography earlier than Daguerre in France and Fox Talbot in England, the two men credited with its invention. Bayard was reportedly persuaded by a friend of Daguerre to postpone the announcement of his findings, thus missing the opportunity to be recognized as the inventor of the medium. In 1840 he responded to this injustice by creating perhaps
the first example of political‐protest photography, a portrait of himself as a drowned man. -
Calotype Invented
Calotype is an early photographic process introduced in 1841 by William Henry Fox Talbot, using paper coated with silver iodide. -
Fox Talbot applied for patent
Talbot asked only commercial photographers to pay a license fee – hobby photographers could make pictures without a fee. This initially hindered the spread of Fox Talbot’s process. -
First photographic book
The first instalment of Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions in October 1843 is widely considered to be the first photographic book. -
The early beginnings of a new art
Fox Talbot was interested in photography as an art form from the beginning. He considered the photograph “The Open Door” as “an example of the early beginnings of a new art”. -
"The Pencil of Nature"
Fox Talbot published a book of his photographs titled “The Pencil of Nature” in six sections from 1844 – 1846. It was the first book using silver gelatin photographs. -
First sustained use of photography for social documentary project
Hill and Adamson produced an extensive essay—some 130 images—of the fishermen and women of Newhaven – a fishing village a mile and a half from Edinburgh, Scotland. Because Fox Talbot’s patent did not apply to Scotland, the two men were free to make calotypes without paying a royalty to Fox Talbot. This is considered the first sustained use of photography for a social‐documentary project. Hill and Adamson took the trouble to photograph both the men and the women in the community. -
Wet Collodion Photography Invented
Invented in 1851, the wet collodion photographic process produced a glass negative and a beautifully detailed print. They were preferred for the quality of the prints and the ease with which they could be reproduced. -
Crimean War
This war was an easily accessible European conflict and was the first conflict to produce a large number of photographic images. -
"The Valley of the Shadow of Death" Photo
Probably the most famous photograph of the Crimea war was taken after the event itself. It is thought that the photographer moved some of the cannon balls to make the photo more photographic. -
John Brown (Abolitionist)
He was an American abolitionist who believed in and advocated armed insurrection as the only way to overthrow the institution of slavery in the United States. He first gained attention when he led small groups of volunteers during the Bleeding Kansas crisis of 1856. -
"The Two Ways of Life" Created
This seamlessly montaged combination print was created from over thirty negatives. It took Rejlander about six weeks to combine all the images into one. The photograph was first exhibited at the Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition of 1857 in Manchester, England. -
Origin of Species Published
On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life, is a work of scientific literature by Charles Darwin which is considered to be the foundation of evolutionary biology. -
Battle of Melegnano
The battle of Melegnano was a costly action during the Austrian retreat after their defeat at Magenta and was a result of a French attempt to discover if the Austrians were planned to abandon all of Lombardy, or were planning to make a stand (Second War of Italian Independence). -
American Civil War
The American Civil War took place between April 1861 and May 1865. During the war over half a million United States and Confederate States soldiers were killed and many more injured. -
Abraham Lincoln became U.S. President
Abraham Lincoln was an American statesman and lawyer who served as the 16th President of the United States from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln led the United States through the American Civil War—its bloodiest war and perhaps its greatest moral, constitutional, and political crisis. -
The dead after the battle of Melegnano
Three years after the Crimean War in an Italian war, photographs of the dead were made. This photograph shows the men heaped together in preparation for burial. Or ‘flung together like sacks of grain, some terribly mutilated, some without mark of injury’ as described in the July 1861 issue of The Atlantic Monthly by Oliver Wendell Holmes, who had seen the photograph in a friend’s stereograph collection. -
Slavery abolished in the United States
Passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865, the 13th amendment abolished slavery in the United States and provides that "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." -
Julia Margaret Cameron Photography
She photographed many of the Victorian Era cultural elite – including Alice Liddell as a young woman. She was not so interested in technically sharp images, instead she would use a lens with a short focal length giving a narrow focal point. This soft focus was used effectively to suggest dreams or mystery. -
Crimea became Ukraine
The Crimea has a troubled and uncertain history with many countries wishing to protect their interests. The Crimea was part of the former Soviet Union and became part of the Ukraine in 1991. -
Photo Secession Movement Founded
The Photo-Secession was an early 20th century movement that promoted photography as a fine art in general and photographic pictorialism in particular. The Photo‐Secession movement was created by Alfred Stieglitz for American Photographers. The goal of the movement was to hold exhibitions.
