BIRTH OF PHOTOGRAPHY IN AMERICA

JOHN LOCKE (1792-1856)

Locke was the first American ever to exhibit photographs to the public. Locke was a professor of chemistry and pharmacy at the Medical College of Ohio. He exhibited specimens of photographs using Talbot's method ("photogenic drawings") in a bookstore in Ohio. He also produced the first photograph on paper (May 1839) in America.

SAMUEL F. B. MORSE (1791-1872)

The inventor of the telegraph. Professor Morse of New York who along with his brothers were publishers of the "New York Observer" was very interested in the "New Art". He met Daguerre in Paris March seventh and eighth of 1839, to discuss the new invention and wrote back to his brothers with great details about it. They published his letter in May 18, 1839 issue of the New York Observer:

" A few days ago I addressed a note to M. Daguerre requesting, as a stranger, the favor to see his results, and inviting him in turn to see my Telegraph. I was politely invited to see them under these circumstances, for he had determined not to show them again, until the Chambers had passed definitely on a proposition for the Government to purchase the secret of the discovery, and make it public.... I called on M. Daguerre, at his rooms in the Diorama, to see these admirable results. They are produced on a metallic surface, the principal piece about 7" by 5", and they resemble aquatint engravings, for they are in simple chiaro-oscuro, and not in colors.... No painting or engraving ever approached it....."

Morse established a good friendship with Mr. Daguerre and developed a great interest for the new art. Having been the first to provide American readers with a personal report on Daguerre's invention, Morse was among the first to take up its practice upon his return to New York. He had many great students such as Mathew Brady and Edward Anthony, who all later started very successful businesses. He also produced the first daguerreotype of still life ever taken in the United States. It was taken in the late summer of 1839 of the Unitarian Church on Broadway in New York City. The second daguerreotype was taken in September 27, 1839 by D.W. SEAGER of St. Paul's Church (the church is still here in New York city, at Broadway and Fulton St). News of Daguerre's invention was published in American as well as European newspapers in the first three months of 1839. Daguerre sent an agent by the name of Francois Gouraud, who came to New York in November 1839 to hold exhibits and lectures first in New York and then in Boston. Daguerre took out a patent both in France and England for the daguerreotype, before the French government purchased the rights to it. Daguerre did not patent the daguerreotype in America for some strange reason. Therefore, there were no restrictions on its practice or further development in the United States. The "New Art" of daguerreotyping spread all over Europe and the United States like fire. In the first year of photography, the average American thought the photographers did some type of magical hocus-pocus in the "dark room". They would often ask questions such as: "what do you do in there, do you say something over it?" New York, Boston and Philadelphia were the principal scenes of action during the first year of the daguerreotype.