{"id":673711,"date":"2026-07-04T17:01:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T17:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/673711\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T17:01:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T17:01:10","slug":"taken-in-1839-this-is-the-oldest-surviving-american-photo-but-it-wasnt-taken-with-a-camera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/673711\/","title":{"rendered":"Taken in 1839, this is the oldest surviving American photo \u2013 but it wasn\u2019t taken with a camera"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today, America turns 250 years old \u2013 which means the US predates the invention of photography<\/a> by about 50 years. But while the camera didn\u2019t exist to record the Founding Fathers, the oldest known surviving American photograph was taken only shortly after the invention of the daguerreotype in France.<\/p>\n

Inventor Joseph Saxon<\/a> was working at the US Mint in Philadelphia<\/a> in the fall of 1839 when he experimented with a relatively new technology from Europe: he took a photo from a window, freezing the nearby Central High School in a small two-inch square. Exposing the photo took a full ten minutes.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Saxon, however, didn\u2019t take the daguerreotype with a traditional camera. He exposed the daguerreotype, which is a copper plate coated with silver, inside a cigar box with a crude lens attached.<\/p>\n

Latest Videos From\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

The first daguerreotype<\/a> had been taken by Louis Daguerre only months earlier, in August 1839, using a camera obscura, a light-tight box.<\/p>\n

Saxon’s image is believed to be the oldest surviving American photograph, taken just a few months after the daguerreotype was introduced to the public by Louis Daguerre in 1839.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

(Joseph Nic\u00e9phore Ni\u00e9pce<\/a> is often credited with taking the first permanent photograph in 1826, but the daguerreotype made photographs more widely available.)<\/p>\n

Today, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania owns the daguerreotype \u2013 but it doesn\u2019t spend much time on display. If daguerreotypes are exposed to too much light, they fade to a mirror-like finish<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The best camera deals, reviews, product advice, and unmissable photography news, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n

Shortly after Saxon took the cigar box daguerreotype, in October or November of that same year, Robert Cornelius took what\u2019s widely believed to be the first American portrait<\/a> (and the first self-portrait).<\/p>\n

Cornelius took the photo of himself with a box and an opera lens, taking the photo outside because daguerreotypes required a several-minute exposure time.<\/p>\n

\n

\"A\n<\/p>\n

The first ever self portrait by Robert Cornelius (Image credit: Robert Cornelius \/ Library of Congress)<\/p>\n

While Cornelius proved the technology could capture a person\u2019s likeness \u2013 if willing to hold still long enough \u2013 the first known photograph of a sitting American president<\/a> wouldn\u2019t arrive until a few years later, when John Quincy Adams was photographed in 1843.<\/p>\n

You may also like…<\/p>\n

Ready to take throwback photos? These are the best film cameras<\/a> and the best film for cameras.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Today, America turns 250 years old \u2013 which means the US predates the invention of photography by about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673712,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-673711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=673711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}