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Oldest photo? We have ’em.

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Oldest photo with a person - 1838
“At first glance, it doesn’t seem that remarkable,” writes Brandon Briggs of CNN. “An old black-and-white scene of a strangely deserted city, smudged in places by some primitive photographic process. But this image, taken in Paris, France, in 1838, is believed to be the earliest known photograph featuring a person.”

In a November 7, 2014, story, CNN’s Brandon Briggs shares the story about this “oldest photo” from Mashable.com and Amanda Uren of Retronaut.com, a website that archives historic photos. Apparently, the photo has appeared online before, but it’s generated more attention because Mashable published it as a full-page story… And just where is the human in this “earliest-known photo with a person”? In the lower left corner, a man has his boots cleaned with a sidewalk vendor. Louis Daguerre—the French photographer famous for pioneering the daguerreotype, an early photo process—captured the image in Paris.

But wait a second: It’s a Paris street, after all. It should be bustling. Where is everyone?

“The exposure time [for a daguerreotype ] was around seven minutes,” Uren explains, “and although the street would have been busy with traffic and pedestrians, it appears deserted. That’s because everything that moved was too fast to register on the plate. The exception is the man at the lower left who was still long enough to appear in the photograph.” Uren also notes that the daguerreotype process created a mirror image of the actual scene and measured 6.5  x 8.5 inches.

So, I began to wonder about the oldest photo within the half-million historic photographs in the archives here at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. I had my suspicions it would probably be an early image of William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody as a child. It turns out we have two. The first is a photo of Cody at age 2 (1848) wearing a dress. Can you guess why?

Center of the West oldest photo
William F. Cody, age 2. MS 6 William F. Cody Collection. P.69.1681

Our other “oldest” images include Cody at age 4 (1850), George Armstrong Custer as a West Point cadet (1857), and detective Allan Pinkerton (1862).

William F. Cody, age 4. MS 6 William F. Cody Collection, McCracken Research Library. P.6.672
William F. Cody, age 4. MS 6 William F. Cody Collection, McCracken Research Library. P.6.672
West Point Cadet George Armstrong Custer, ca. 1857. MS 71 Vincent Mercaldo Collection, McCracken Research Library. P.71.233
West Point Cadet George Armstrong Custer, ca. 1857. MS 71 Vincent Mercaldo Collection, McCracken Research Library. P.71.233
Detective Allan Pinkerton, ca. 1862. MS 71 Vincent Mercaldo Collection, McCracken Research Library. P.71.855
Detective Allan Pinkerton, ca. 1862. MS 71 Vincent Mercaldo Collection, McCracken Research Library. P.71.855

Explore the historic photos in the archives of the Center’s McCracken Research Library; if you find an older image, let us know! (And about that “dress” on Toddler Buffalo Bill? Believe it or not, it makes perfect sense!)

About Marguerite House

Marguerite House served as the Center of the West’s Acting Director of Public Relations until her retirement at the end of 2018, and as editor of its member magazine, Points West, through May 2019. Following a seven-year stint as Business Manager for the Cody Country Chamber of Commerce, Marguerite moved “across the street” to the Center in 1999. She then held five different positions in three of the Center’s four divisions, landing in PR in 2005. “I think that [gave] me all kinds of perspectives for our readers,” she says. She enjoys writing (especially a weekly column for the local newspaper called “On the House”), cooking, and spending time with her six grandkids.

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