Photographs of People In The 1840s: Early Traces of Reality

- Photographs of People in the 1840's, including French Romantic painter Eugene Delacroix, Ulysses S. Grant, James Forten, African-American abolitionist and Phila. businessman, Louis Daguerre and Dolly Madison.

Louis Daguerre's practical version of a camera obscura was announced to the world on Aug. 19, 1839. As an enthusiast of 19th c. photography, there's nothing more rare or mesmerizing than views of the mediums first decade, the 1840's. I've put together a compilation of the most interesting shots I could find spanning the whole decade. A lot of these early photographs are very faded, so I've worked on every image to get them looking as crisp is possible.

The background music is selections from Felix Mendelssohn's "Songs Without Words" series played by Gaby Casadesus in 1947.