Viewing the oldest photos in the world
What’s the oldest photographs that you have seen? I think most people would think of Civil War photos being the oldest, and at close to 160 years old, they are old.
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A heliograph from 1825 is the oldest surviving heliographic engraving.
They aren’t the oldest photos around, though. A few heliographic photos from the 1820s still exist. Joseph Nicéphore Niépce invented heliography in 1822. He used Bitumen of Judea, a naturally occurring asphalt, to coat on glass or metal. It hardened the more it was exposed to light. When the plate was then washed with oil of lavender, the hardened areas remained. It could then be printed as an engraving would be.
Then in the late 1830’s, Louis Daguerre brought the world what is considered the first true photographs. His process was called a daguerreotype. He exposed a silver-plated copper sheet to iodine crystal vapor. The interaction formed a coating of silver iodide, which is light sensitive, on the plate. The plate, which is in a camera, is then exposed to a scene.
The problem with both heliographs and daguerreotypes was that they required long exposures. Daguerre realized that shorter exposures created a faint image that could be developed into an easily visible image when exposed to mercury vapor heated to 75 degrees Celsius. The mercury vapor also set the image so that it could be no further developed.
A final wash in heated salt water then created a plate that was safe to be handled and displayed.
An article in National Geographic said that upon seeing his first developed image, Daguerre said, “I have seized the light – I have arrested its flight!”
Daguerreotypes are the first type of photos that reached America.
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One of the earliest surviving photos in the United States.
The reason I bring both of these up is that I found an interesting YouTube Channel by Chubachus. It shows a series of the oldest surviving photos in the United States. These photos date back to the early 1840s. Another video I found showed the oldest photos in the world, which are heliographs dating back to the 1820s.
These photos aren’t dramatic like many Matthew Brady’s photos from the Civil War, but it is fascinating to see images of the world that are nearly 200 years old.
Forget about imagining America from paintings or descriptions. Why watch a movie that creates an older America using CGI when you can look at the real thing?
The photos in these videos remind me of an article I once saw that showed photographs of people who had lived during the Revolutionary War who managed to still be alive when photography reached America.
For me, it was like having a window opened that looked into the past.
You might also enjoy these posts:
Signs of the Times: Poster Art from WWII
Historic Photo: Banana docks, East River, New York, circa 1900, colorized.
Historic Photo: Men of the Depression, 1939, by Dorothea Lange, colorized.
