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Our Town

First Portrait by Photography

It is a little more than a 'hundred years since the first portrait made by a photographic process was produced in Philadelphia in the back yard of the building then standing at 710 Chestnut St. This event took place less than three weeks after the first daguerreotype to be made in America also had been produced in>Phifadelphia. This pioneer effort was the work of Robert Cornelius, who was one of the numerous experimenters with the new science after the, first authentic account of Daguerre's process had. been published in a Philadelphia news' paper, United States Gazette, September 2, 1839. A letter from Paris to Alexander D. Bache was handed over to the Philadelphia newspaper, which published it,' 'thus starting on the way a number of men interested in the new science which had not yet even been named. The first daguerreotype made in this coun try that produced by Joseph Saxton, is in the collection of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Robert Cornelius, who was a manufacturr of gas fixtures and candelabra, was, something of a scientist, and he studied the account of the Frenchman's discovery of using the sun to make pictures. It occurred to him that the process might be useful in making portraits, because the only other method then known was by means of an artist either painting the portrait or cutting a silhouette out of black paper. By either process the margin of error in obtaining faithfulness was large and the new method promised to beaccurate, at ]east. Very brilliant light was needed to make the daguerreotype and necessitated the sitter`~, Iemainipg still for several minutes. The first efforts by the inventor are said to have required an exposure of one hour and 12 minutes. Cornelius had to devise a camera; then he ced a chair in the bright sunlight 'and, hay.q focused it, he ran out and seated himself while the exposure was being made. He has not left a definite account of the time he required, but did write that it required some minutes with iodine to produce the effect. The head is not in the center of the plate, but the first portrait ever made by a photographic process is by no means bad. It also is interesting, as it depicts the operator himself. This was possible .on account of the slowness . of the process. J9SPH JACKSON
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