Painting and Photography.

Louis XIV

(possibly by Francois Octavien, 1695-1736). Showing people harvesting in the fields, with a storm in the distance.

Nicolas-Jean-Baptiste Raguenet, A View of Paris from the Pont Neuf.

The world’s first photograph—or at least the oldest surviving photo—was taken by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in 1826 or 1827. The shot was taken from an upstairs window at Niépce’s estate in Burgundy. As heliography produces one-of-a-kind images, there are no duplicates of the piece.

We may be used to selfies now, but it’s Robert Cornelius’s 1839 image that lays claim to the first self-portrait. Taken in Philadelphia, Cornelius sat for a little over one minute before covering the lens.

This 1848 daguerreotype of Manhattan’s Upper West side is the oldest surviving photo of New York. In 2009, it was sold at Sotheby’s for $62,500. Unfortunately, the first photo of New York, which shows the Unitarian Church, is now lost.

Louis Daguerre—the inventor of daguerreotype—shot what is not only the world’s oldest photograph of Paris, but also the first photo with humans. It was taken in 1839 in Place de la République and it’s just possible to make out two blurry figures in the left-hand corner.

Carol Popp de Szathmari is the first known war photographer, capturing hundreds of images of the Crimean War. But it’s this image from 1870 that is thought to be the first photograph of an actual battle. Showing a line of Prussian troops as they advance, the photographer shot the image as he stood with French defenders.

In the age of drones, aerial photography is often taken for granted, but this 1860 image actually pioneered the technique. Showing Boston from over 2,000 feet in the air, this aerial photograph was taken by James Wallace Black and Samuel Archer King. Unfortunately, the first aerial image, which was taken by French photographer and balloonist Gaspard-Félix Tournachon, has been lost.

John Quincy Adams holds the distinction of being the first U.S. president photographed, though he wasn’t in office at the time. Captured at his home in Quincy, Massachusetts in 1843, fourteen years after he left office, the daguerreotype was shot by Philip Haas. The first photograph of a sitting president was taken in 1841, but has now been lost. It depicted short-lived president William Henry Harrison before he passed away from pneumonia just 31 days after taking office.