Photography in the late 1800s fascinates me. Fancy chemical bottles, glass plates, and wooden box cameras with dark cloth draped over the back. Nothing like the digital camera on my phone. In 1839, the daguerreotype was introduced to the public. It was a process that created highly detailed photographs on silver-plated sheets of copper.
Only one copy could be made at a time, so each is an original.
By the 1860s, the wet plate process. . .