Daguerreotype. Europe’s Earliest Photographic Records

The daguerreotype was the first successful process in the history of photography and was named after its inventor Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre. After the announcement and introduction in 1839, the daguerreotype was widely used in Europe for the first photographic images of Europe and its citizens. The base of the daguerreotype is a highly polished metal plate, consisting of a thin layer of silver on a copper support. The Daguerreobase project is a public platform and Best Practice Network of archives, libraries, museums and private contributors from across Europe to collect and preserve information on European daguerreotypes and to spread best practice in the collection and dissemination of this information. (Copyright www.daguerreobase.org)