The Influence Of Photography On The 19th Century

Photography: A New Outlook On The 19th Century The United States was introduced to many new inventions in the 1800’s that they never imagined would exist. However, the introduction of photography to the U.S. is never recognized for the amazing development that it is. Photography came to the U.S. in 1839 after Louis-Jacques-Mande Daguerre invented the daguerreotype in France. Due to the extreme cost of the medium, only the wealthy could purchase cameras. But over time as the cost lowered, the middle class began to be able to purchase and use cameras. The use of photography in everyday life helped to provide a new insight for the people today about many historical events in the past. Photography also helped to show the lives of slaves it the

“By the turn of the century the Kodak Brownie camera had been invented, making it possible for the average person to take candid photos of family and friends” (Gerber). Thanks to photography people now had the ability to have exact images of their loved ones who have died, or pictures of sons and husbands when they go to war. People also had a way to document things that happen in their daily lives. Anyone with a camera could take pictures of their workplace, homes, or even random moments throughout the day. Being able to preserve a memory on a piece of paper was seen as a miracle in the nineteenth century, but today it is apart of daily life thanks to pressing a single button. The average person now had the control to preserve any moment they wanted. “The invention of photography was a triumph of the Industrial Revolution mission to bend nature to human will” (Ang). This means that ordinary people now had the power to do something beyond human capabilities by taking a single moment in time and preserving it forever. The average American life could now be shown. Photos of meetings, parties, political events, etc. could now be put in newspapers. Photography is the original social media. Now women could show off pictures of their perfectly made custards and stewed fruit to their friends (Olver). The

Candid pictures of slaves working or an image of the scars on a slave's body from being mistreated would help lead to people realizing the true cruelty that slavery is. People around the world could see what life was like for them based off of photos of their living conditions, bodies, work environments, and any other picture that truly depicted their lives (Photography - U.S. History in Context). Also photography helped historians by giving them a visual representation of what happened in the daily lives of slaves. “Photography grasped the historical significance of the conflict and the acute need to document it for the future” (Covkin). Historians have an advantage by using pictures because they are able to easily figure out how the treatment of slaves changed as the Civil War approached and when the war began in 1861. The use of photography in journalism brought new light on how people witnessed the war. Photos of soldiers, slaves, and politicians could be used as propaganda (Sandler). “If missionary work was a spearhead of colonizing influences, photography was a vital backup. Used to raise funds and campaign for support, photographs of primitive people by missionary groups helped to reinforce stereotypes of the noble savage” (Ang 50). The use of real images in propaganda helped to peg the North vs. the South and the White man vs. the Black man. By making cameras smaller journalist could easily