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Camera Obscura
The box form of camera obscura invented by a German author Johann Zahn. -
First Images Using Silver Nitrate
Thomas Wedgwood and Humphrey Davy experiment with such chemical as silver nitrate to produce an image on a glass surface. Silver nitrate becomes the key component of darkroom photography, but Wedgwood and Davy are unable to fix an image and prevent it from darkening when exposed to light. -
The First Confirmed Sighting of Mainland Antarctica
A Russian explorer Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen becomes the first person to see the Antarctic continent. -
The Oldest Photo
Joseph Nicephore Niepce creates the first surviving photograph in 1826. -
"Latticed Window"
An English inventor Henry Fox Talbot creates the world’s earliest surviving negative by taking a photo of a window at Lacock Abbey. -
"View of the Boulevard du Temple"
Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre takes an image called of what is believed to be the first image of a man. -
The Calotype
An English scientist and inventor introduces calotype process, which involved producing a picture by coating paper with silver iodine. -
"Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions"
Anna Atkins publishes her book "Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions", which is considered to be the first photographic book. -
"Pencil of Nature"
Henry Fox Talbot publishes a photography book using silver gelatin photographs. -
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave"
African-American orator and abolitionist Frederick Douglass publishes "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave". -
Studio Portraiture
African-American photographer Augustus Washington creates a studio portrait of an abolitionist John Brown with added props and background. -
Mexican-American War
Mexican-American War begins due to the westward expansion of the United States and the annexation of Texas. -
Sewing Machine is Invented
An American inventor Elias Howe patents the first practical sewing machine. -
Seneca Falls Convention
The first women's rights convention takes place in Seneca Falls, New York. -
The Great Exhibiton
The first international exhibition takes place in London. -
Wet-collodion process
A British inventor creates a technique called wet-collodion process, which involved involved adding a soluble iodide to a solution of collodion (cellulose nitrate) and coating a glass plate with the mixture. -
"Valley of the Shadow of Death"
A British photographer Roger Fenton takes one of the first war photographs in Sevastopol during the Crimean War. -
Lewis Carroll: Photographer
Carroll photographs Alice Liddell, a daughter of his acquaintances, as a beggar maid. New use of photography for fiction and fantasy. -
Portrait of Abraham Lincoln
A civil war photographer takes a photo of an American president Abraham Lincoln. -
Gardner's Sketchbook
A Scottish photographer Alexander Gardner publishes his photographic sketchbook containing 100 photographs of the American civil war. -
Silver Gelatin Process
Richard Leach Maddox invents negative gelatin plates, thus coming up with a dry plate process that replaced wet plate process in the 1880s. The new technique involved mixing gelatin with bromide and silver nitrate. -
Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park, the first national park in the US is established. -
Transparent Film
George Eastman introduces roll film on a flexible transparent base, which has remained the standard for film until the digital photography was invented. -
The Eiffel Tower
The Eiffel Tower is inaugurated on March 31, 1889 thus becoming the tallest structure in the world. -
First Sherlock Holmes Story
Arthur Conan Doyle published the first Sherlock Holmes story in Strand Magazine. -
The Discovery of Aspirin
In 1897 Felix Hoffmann, a German chemist, was searching for medicine to help relieve his father’s arthritis when he created acetylsalicylic acid commonly known as aspirin. -
Photo-Secession
Alfred Stieglitz founds a movement called photo-secession that promotes photography as a fine art. -
Straight Photography
Paul Strand introduces a new form of photography art called straight photography, that dealt with abstract forms and shapes in focus instead of being manipulated.
