The daguerreotype in America and England after 1860

Abstract

Daguerre's invention surprised and delighted the world, and the extreme detail, tonal fidelity and beauty of his pictures excited unbounded admiration. In a novelty hungry age, the daguerreotype was the supreme novelty. People were intoxicated by it, particularly when the invention was sufficiently perfected to be applied to portraiture. Of all countries, the United States took to daguerreotypy with the greatest vigour, and there also it had the longest-lived popularity as the favourite photographic portrait medium. Indeed, it was commonly used long after Europe had turned to other processes.