This Mercury fuming box for developing daguerreotypes is certainly among the earliest photographic equipment used in America, dating 1839-1840. Working closely with Dr. J.W. Draper in New York, Morse was instrumental in promoting photography in America, furthering experimentation, and producing e

Samuel F. B. Morse (1791-1872), an artist and inventor of the telegraph, was in Paris in 1839 sharing the scientific and celebrity stage with Daguerre. The two inventors shared notes on their inventions and Morse returned to the US with a camera, perhaps the first camera in the United States...

A popular portrait method of photography from the 1839 announcement of its invention to about 1860, the Daguerreotype was a unique photograph with no negative—each photograph was exposed on a copper plate coated with silver-nitrate. This half-length Daguerreotype portrait of Louis Jacques MandÃ

Believed to be the first photographic portrait made in the United States, this portrait of Dorothy Catherine Draper was originally taken by her brother Dr. John W. Draper (1811-1882) in his Washington Square studio at the New York University in 1839 or 1840, within the first year of Louis Jacques

This beautiful daguerreotype by Boston-area photographer George K. Warren (1832–1884) is of the photographer's wife, Mary Ann Warren. The Photographic History Collection has a collection of letters, scrapbooks, daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, cartes-de-visites, cabinet cards, other paper prints, an

For most of the twentieth century, two generations of Scurlocks documented Washington, D.C.'s African American community and city life.  Portraits of a City is a web resource from the Archives Center, National Museum of American History, that preserves and provides access to the pho

Family photograph albums hold the history of generations, preserving the memories of birthdays, holidays, travels, and all general aspects of life. African American Mary Taylor used her 35mm Bell and Howell camera to document her family's life in the black community of Los Angeles, California, du

Photographs can be powerful connections to the past. Soldiers, for example often had their portraits made before going off to war so that loved ones would have a rememberance of them in the event they did not return. This decorative mat is unusual and suggests the pride the owner may have felt ab

Discover America's favorite pastimes, sports and hobbies through the use of brief articles, images, video and audio clips, trivia questions and an interactive game entitled "Batter Up." Students will gain a unique perspective of American history by using this resource from the Library of Con

Yamashita began taking pictures in 1971 while on a self-styled "roots" trip to Japan. What began as a pastime led to a career combining his two passions—photography and travel. He has been a regular contributor to the National Geographic since 1979 and has worked in such diverse locations as So