History of Photography

We owe the name "Photography" to Sir John Herschel, who first used the term in 1839, the year the photographic process became public.


Claud Glass

Named after artist Claude Lorraine, this small, blackened pocket mirror reduced the tonal values of whatever landscapes you pointed it at, while its convex shape simultaneously brought more of the scene into a single focal point.

Pantograph 

The pantograph as originally made to trace original art and then scale it up or down in size. One arm of the pantograph contained a smaller pointer, while the other help a drawing implement and by moving the pointer over a diagram, a copy of the diagram was draw on another piece of paper. 

Physionotrace

The first system invented to produce multiple copies of a portrait. Invented in 1786 by Gilles Louis Chrétien (1774-1811). In his apparatus a profile cast by a lamp onto a glass plate was traced by an operator using a pointer connected, by a system of levers like a pantograph, to an engraving tool moving over a copper plate.

Camera Obscura

The camera obscura had been in existence for at least four hundred years, but its use was limited to its purpose as an aid to drawing. It was discovered that if a room was completely darkened, with a single hole in one wall, an inverted image would be seen on the opposite wall. A person inside of the room could then trace this image, which was upside-down. The earliest record of the uses of a camera obscura can be found in the writings of Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), who may have used it as an aid to understanding perspective. In the 17th and 18th centuries, a table-top model was developed. By adding a focused lens and a mirror, it was possible for a person outside of the box to trace the image which was reflected through it.

Camera Lucida


A camera lucida is an optical device used as a drawing aid by artists. The camera lucida performs an optical superimposition of the subject being viewed upon the surface upon which the artist is drawing.