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• Collection: Daguerreotypes

• Title: [Robert Cornelius, self-portrait; believed to be the earliest extant American portrait photo]
• Creator(s): Cornelius, Robert, 1809-1893, photographer
• Date Created/Published: 1839 [Oct. or Nov.]
• Medium: 1 photograph : approximate quarter plate daguerreotype ; mount 37.6 x 29.1 cm, visible plate 9 x 6.9 cm.
• Summary: Daguerre announced his invention of a photographic method to the French Academy of Sciences in August 1839. That October, a young Philadelphian, Robert Cornelius, working out of doors to take advantage of the light, made this head-and-shoulders self-portrait using a box fitted with a lens from an opera glass. In the portrait, Cornelius stands slightly off-center with hair askew, in the yard behind his family's lamp and chandelier store, peering uncertainly into the camera. Early daguerreotypy required a long exposure time, ranging from three to fifteen minutes, making the process nearly impractical for portraiture. (Source: "Photographic Material," by Carol Johnson. In Gathering History: the Marian S. Carson Collection of Americana, 1999, p. 100)
• Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-ppmsca-40464 (digital file from original item) LC-USZC4-5001 (color film copy transparency) LC-USZC2-4912 (color film copy slide) LC-USZ6-2174 (b&w film copy neg.)
• Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication.
  
• Access Advisory: Restricted access. Please use digital image or other reference copy. Original photograph is too fragile to serve.
• Call Number: DAG no. 1255 (Cabinet A)
• Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
• Notes:
  • Title devised by Library staff.
  • Inscribed on paper backing: The first light picture ever taken. 1839.
  • Robert Cornelius: Portraits from the dawn of photography / Stapp. Smithsonian Institution Press, 1983, p. 50
  • Gift; Marian S. Carson; 1996; (DLC/PP-1996:086.3).
  • Forms part of: Daguerreotype collection (Library of Congress).
  • Forms part of: Marian S. Carson collection (Library of Congress).
  • Published in: Gathering history: the Marian S. Carson collection of Americana. Washington, D.C. : Library of Congress, 1999, p. 100.
  • Published in: "Images of America" chapter of the ebook Great Photographs from the Library of Congress, 2013.
  • Published in: The Joy of Looking: Great Photographs from the Library of Congress, 2023.
  • Exhibited: American Treasures of the Library of Congress.
  • Exhibited as a digital copy in: "Not an Ostrich: And Other Images from America's Library" at the Annenberg Space for Photography, 2018; Icons section.
• Subjects:
  • Cornelius, Robert,--1809-1893.
• Format:
  • Daguerreotypes--1830-1840.
  • Portrait photographs--1830-1840.
  • Self portraits--1830-1840.
• Collections:
  • Daguerreotypes
• Part of: Daguerreotype collection (Library of Congress)
• Bookmark This Record:
     https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2004664436/

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• Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication.
• Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-ppmsca-40464 (digital file from original item) LC-USZC4-5001 (color film copy transparency) LC-USZC2-4912 (color film copy slide) LC-USZ6-2174 (b&w film copy neg.)
• Call Number: DAG no. 1255 (Cabinet A)
• Medium: 1 photograph : approximate quarter plate daguerreotype ; mount 37.6 x 29.1 cm, visible plate 9 x 6.9 cm.

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• Call Number: DAG no. 1255 (Cabinet A)
• Medium: 1 photograph : approximate quarter plate daguerreotype ; mount 37.6 x 29.1 cm, visible plate 9 x 6.9 cm.
• Access Advisory: Restricted access. Please use digital image or other reference copy. Original photograph is too fragile to serve.

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