The British Library has for the first time created an exhibition from its unique photography archive of some 300,000 items, dating back to the first days of the process. Sue Steward reviews this major exhibition elsewhere, while here we present a selection of some of these marvellous early images.
Click on a picture to enter full view and the slideshow
- Anna Atkins, (algae) Dictyola dichtoma, 1843-53.
- Lady Alice Mary Kerr, Portrait of William Scawen Blunt, c 1870.
- Samuel Bourne, From the top of the Manirung Pass, India, 1864.
- Francis Frith, Hastings from the beach – low water, 1864.
- Henry Dixon and Son shop in Macclesfield Street, Soho, London, 1883.
- Josef Maria Eder & Eduard Valenta X-ray photograph of Frogs, 1890s.
- Etienne Carjat, Portrait of Charles Baudelaire, 1863.
- Unknown photographer, Kodak Head Office, c 1902.
- Unknown photographer, Printing Kodak negatives by daylight, Harrow, 1891.
- Antoine Jean Francois Claudet, (Framed) Portrait of William Henry Fox Talbot by a rival Daguerrotype photographer, early 1840s
- Fox Talbot, Photogenic Drawing of Flower Specimens, 1839
- John Thomson, Workers on the Silent Highway
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Points of View: Capturing the 19th Century in Photographs - a free exhibition - continues at the British Library until 7 March 2010. Information here. The accompanying book by John Falconer and Louise Hide can be purchased here.
