early photography

"Golden Prospects: California Gold Rush Daguerreotypes" to Open at Nelson-Atkins

Kansas City, Missouri — From the moment the first cry of “Gold!” was heard at Sutter’s Mill in 1848, thousands of people made the journey to California to find their fortune. Daguerreotypists also made their way west, not in search of gold, but to capitalize on the ready market of potential customers. Golden Prospects: California Gold Rush Daguerreotypes opens at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City Sept. 6.

“In Focus: The Camera” Opens at the Getty July 30

Los Angeles – The camera, once a simple wooden box with a primitive lens and cap for controlling light, has undergone enormous changes since its invention, eventually becoming a tool that is in most people’s back pockets. In Focus: The Camera, on view July 30, 2019 – January 5, 2020 at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Getty Center, explores the evolution of this ingenious device through a selection of historic cameras and photographs.

The Barnes Foundation to Present Survey of Experimental Early Photography

Philadelphia—For its second survey of photography, the Barnes Foundation is presenting nearly 250 early photographs—most of which have never been exhibited before—created by British and French photographers between the 1840s and 1880s. Curated by Thom Collins, executive director and president of the Barnes, From Today, Painting Is Dead: Early Photography in Britain and France is drawn from the private collection of Michael Mattis and Judy Hochberg and spans the invention of the daguerreotype to photography on paper and beyond.

Extremely Rare Abraham Lincoln Photograph at Sotheby's NY fbcadmin Wed, 09/21/2016 - 22:24

Screen Shot 2016-09-21 at 10.22.45 PM.pngNew York, 19 September 2016--Sotheby's is privileged to present an extremely rare and important photograph, The First Inaugural of Abraham Lincoln, 4 March 1861 (estimate $20/30,000)

Library of Congress Acquires Rare Civil War Stereographs

The Library of Congress has acquired 540 rare and historic Civil War stereographs from the Robin G. Stanford Collection. The first 77 images are now online, including 12 stereographs of President Lincoln’s funeral procession through several cities and 65 images by Southern photographers showing South Carolina in 1860-61.

The images can be viewed in this gallery within the Library’s Prints and Photographs Online Catalog. More images will be added each month, until all are online.

Two Albums of Rare 19th-Century Photography Sold High at Bonhams

Two collections of early photography — fashionable ladies and the architecture and landscapes of India — were the stand-out items in Bonhams sale £784,000 today (19.3.13) of Books at Photographs in Knightsbridge, London.


Top item in the sale was an important collection of 37 albumen prints by Clemintina Maud, Lady Hawarden, plus 15 associated albumen prints (several possibly by Lady Hawarden), [c.1857-1864] which sold for £115,200.


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