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Industrial Revolution
In England, the Industrial Revolution prompted the creation of many new inventions and the race to get one's invention patented and known. -
Lithography
Lithography was a technique invented for newspapers and others to copy images. -
"An Account of Method of Copying Paintings upon Glass, and making Profiles by the Agency upon Nitrate of Silver"
This is Thomas Wedgwood and Sir Humphrey Davy's paper which is the earliest record of photography in England and though they were able to create images they struggled with permanence of photographs. -
"View from the Study Window at Maison du Gras"
This is the earliest surviving photograph created by Joseph Nicephore Niepce. -
Calotype
"Latticed Window" by Henry Fox Talbot in 1835, shown here, is a Calotype but he did not voice his invention until 1839 after Daguerre. Calotypes are able to get multiple prints from a negative and Talbot created the negative/positive process, -
Queen Victoria
Queen Victoria becomes the Queen of England as her father and three uncles had all died previously. The time during her reign would be known as the Victorian Era. -
Electric Telegraph
The electric telegraph was invented by Sir William Cooke and Sir Charles Wheatstone, two British inventors, who created this telegraph to help with England's growing railway system. -
Daguerreotype
"Boulevard du Temple" by Daguerre is thought to be the first photo of a human being. Daugerreotypes used a polished silver plate as a mirrored surface. -
Bicycle
Kirkpatrick Macmillan created the first pedal driven bicycle and though it was heavy and took much effort, Macmillan was quick to master riding his new creation and soon many saw the potential in his pedal bicycle. -
Cyanotype
Sir John Herschel created the cyanotype which requires laying an object onto sensitized paper so the photo is a one-to-one representation of the object's form. -
Biological Photography
Anna Atkins published "Photographs and British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions" which is a collection of photograms and is considered to be the first photographic book. These photograms are able to show scientific illustrations of different plants. -
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Early Portraiture
A collection of Calotypes created by Hill and Adamson of people in Newhaven, Scotland is considered to be the first use of photography for a social-documentary project. -
"The Pencil of Nature"
Talbot's published book of photographs was the first to use silver gelatin photographs and helped explore how photography can be used in artistic ways. -
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Mexican-American War
The Mexican-American War was a conflict between the US and Mexico that ended with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and with the Mexican Cession. This allowed the US to gain much territory in the American southwest and also increased the population of Mexican immigrants in the US. -
Wet Collodion Process
The wet collodion process was invented which included a glass plate coated in collodion, sensitized in silver iodide before being exposed and then developed. This process created a glass negative and had shorter exposure times compared to Daguerreotypes and Calotypes. -
Photographing Architecture in France
France’s government begins an initiative to photograph the country’s architecture and cultural history. The government designated five photographs to capture the architecture of different regions and helps boost the popularity of photography and art. -
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Crimean War
The Crimean War was the first war that was documented by many photographs. It was a conflict between the Soviet Union and the allied powers of France, Britain, Sardinia, and the Ottoman Empire. The ability to photograph the war allowed the public to gain perspective into the conflict their country was involved in. -
Fenton's Crimean Photography
“The Valley of the Shadow of the Valley of Death” by Roger Fenton, a main photographer of the Crimean War, shows a landscape littered with cannonballs and the after-effects of fighting. Though photos like this did not show fighting in action, they were still able to portray how war affects people and the land. -
Nadar
Nadar, a French photographer and balloonist, photographed many French celebrities for his commercial studio. Nadar also was a proponent of aerial photography but was technologically hindered since he had to carry a darkroom in his hot air balloon. -
"The Two Ways of Life"
“The Two Ways of Life” by Oscar Rejlander is an early image that uses photography as an art form. Rejlander’s photo is an example of tableaux vivant which combines many negatives for printing and depicts the story of two youths; one is shown sinful pleasures by a patriarch and the other is shown the upright pleasures. This image has similarities to Renaissance paintings and displayed the amount of work that can go into a single photograph. -
The Dead of Melegnano
This image taken after a battle at Melegnano in an Italian War shows the atrocities of war by unapologetically photographing the dead soldiers in piles which greatly contrasts the photos of those like Fenton who captured the landscapes and soldiers in uniform. Though Fenton’s photos could inspire nationalism and pride in their fighting, images like this were able to reveal more honest and brutal depictions of war. -
Pictorialism
In the late 1860s, the Pictorialist movement arose which involved techniques such as platinum printing, textured paper, coating a lens in Vaseline and more which would all make a photo less focused, more expressive and therefore more like a painting. -
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American Civil War
The American Civil War was a conflict between the northern states and the southern states and resulted in many deaths. Many photographs were taken at this time of soldiers in studios or with ‘cameristas’. -
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Stereoscopic Images
Stereoscopic images were popular during the civil war since they appeared more realistic. This was due to a twin-lens which gave a 3D effect to the image and allowed people at home to view civil war images as if they were there. Some of Gardner’s Antietam photographs were presented this way and made the images more graphic and shocking. -
Emancipation Proclamation
The Emancipation Proclamation is issued by President Abraham Lincoln which declared slaves as being free men. This helped start a progression towards ending slavery and towards seeing African-American and full citizens, contrasting earlier photography which made these people appear animalistic -
Alexander Gardner
Alexander Gardner published his “Photographic Sketchbook of the War” which included about 100 photographs. However, the book was expensive and difficult to mass produce so single war photographs were more commonly purchased instead. -
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US Immigration
Immigration in the United States skyrockets as about 12 million immigrants from Germany, England, Ireland, and more arrive in the US during this period. As a result, American culture changes drastically as it becomes pluralistic due to people groups with different languages, ethnicities, religions, and customs. -
Julia Margaret Cameron
Julia Margaret Cameron photographs Victorian elite such as Alice Liddell and her portraits are able to give people a look at intellectuals and important figures of the time. Cameron used the wet collodion process to capture her photos. -
Mug-Shots
Alphonse Bertillon started the use of mug-shot portraits for police identification. Mug-shots are still used today. -
Photography in Everyday Life
At this time, photography was becoming a common aspect of everyday life. There were a great amount of photographic journals and societies and the average person was able to get their hands on various images. -
Kodak Camera
The Kodak Camera is introduced by George Eastman and allowed the average person to take photographs without the complications of special equipment and chemicals. Kodak Cameras allowed photographs to become more personal and fun since all the photographer had to do was press a button. -
Matthew Brady
Matthew Brady became a prominent photographer of the civil war despite having much help from operators such as Alexander Gardner. Brady photographed many important figures of the time like Abraham Lincoln. He also exhibited photographs from Antietam which were taken mainly by Gardner. -
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Photo-Secession Movement
The Photo-Secession Movement was initiated by Alfred Stieglitz and focused on creating “straight photography” that centered on form and were less expressive compared to pictorialist photographs. Stieglitz’s goal was for American photographs to have more exhibitions.
