Photography and family history 1827-1850

Photography has become an intergal part of family history. This article talks about the early days of photography to better help in using photos in family history.

1827
Before photography, people, places, and events could only only be captured visually by either painting, descriptive journal entries, and using a camera obscura to trace images of life that are projected onto a piece of paper. For the average person, they could not afford paintings.

For some time, scientists has noticed that silver salts mixtures were light sensitive and would darken in light. Then, in 1827, Joseph Niepice of France, took a plate of metal, covered it with bitumen of Judah,(which was also light sensitive) stuck the plate in a camera obscura, placed it facing out his window, and took the very first photo of life. Even though it took eight hours to take the photo, it worked.