Photography has influenced society since its inception in the 11th century. The oldest photographs depict fascinating details about life before pictures were common. From historical war photos to amazing images of space, the earliest surviving pictures known to humans have a profound and engaging aura.
The very first camera was invented by an Iraqi scientist in the 11th century. Called the “camera obscura,” the device only projected images onto other surfaces, and upside down at that. However, in the early 19th century, photography as we know it was born. French photographer Joseph Nicéphore Niépce used a portable version of the 11th-century device “to expose a pewter plate coated with bitumen to light.” This became the first incarnation of permanent photography.
The images in this list are some of the oldest photographs, and most of them are the first of their kind. From the first picture ever taken by Niépce to the first movie, these images capture the development of permanent photography throughout the course of the 19th century.
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First Photograph On A Camera
Photo: Joseph Nicéphore Niépce / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain
View from the Window at Le Gras, 1826, Saône-et-Loire, Bourgogne, France
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First Reliably Dated Daguerreotype
Photo: Louis Daguerre / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain
L’Atelier de l’artiste, Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre, 1837
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First Photograph With A Human In It
Photo: Louis Daguerre / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain
Boulevard du Temple, 1838, Paris, France
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First Self-Portrait Photograph
Photo: Robert Cornelius / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain
“Robert Cornelius, head-and-shoulders [self-]portrait, facing front, with arms crossed,” 1839, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US
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Oldest Surviving Photograph Of A Woman
Photo: John William Draper / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain
Dorothy Catherine Draper, John William Draper, 1839-1840
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Oldest Surviving Photograph Of The Moon
Photo: John William Draper / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain
1840, rooftop observatory at NYU, New York, US
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First Hoax Photograph
Photo: Juan Carlos M. Rosas / Flickr / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Self Portrait as a Drowned Man, 1840, France
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Oldest Photograph Of A US President
Photo: Philip Haas / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain
Photograph of President John Quincy Adams, 1843, United States
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Oldest Photograph Of People Drinking
Photo: David Octavius Hill / Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain
Edinburgh Ale, 1844, Edinburgh, Scotland
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First Photograph Of The Sun
Photo: Hippolyte Fizeau and Léon Foucault / Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain
Image of the Sun, 1845, Paris, France
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Oldest Photograph Of New York City
Photo: Unknown / NY Times/Public Domain
1848, Upper West Side, Manhattan, New York, US
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Oldest Known Picture Of A Native American Village
Photo: Mathew B. Brady / Library of Congress / No Known Restrictions
View of a Cheyenne village at Big Timbers, Mathew B. Brady, 1853-1860
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Oldest Aerial Photograph
Boston, as the Eagle and the Wild Goose See It, October 13, 1860, Boston, Massachusetts, US
*This is actually not the first aerial photograph. Photographer Nadar shot the first aerial photo, but it was lost.
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First Color Photograph
Photo: James Clerk Maxwell / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain
Tartan Ribbon, 1861, London, England
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First Colored Landscape Photograph
View of Agen, 1877, Agen, France
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First High-Speed Photographic Series
Video: YouTube
Sallie Gardner at a Gallop, 1878, Palo Alto, California, US
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First Photograph Of Lightning
Photograph of lightning, 1882, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US
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First Photograph Of A Tornado
Photo: A.A. Adams / Weatherwise/Public Domain
Photograph of a tornado, 1884, Garnett, Kansas, US
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First “Moving Picture”
Video: YouTube
Roundhay Garden Scene by Louis Le Prince, 1888, Leeds, Great Britain
