Photographic History
“As much as it is an image of beauty, a photograph is an index of a maker’s invention, whether it is a photograph of a bridge, a lock or a portrait.”
—John Jacob, The McEvoy Family Curator for Photography, Smithsonian American Art Museum
The first purchase the Smithsonian made as part of its formal effort to document the history of photography was Samuel F.B. Morse’s daguerrotype equipment— photographed here using the cyanotype process by Thomas Smillie.
Morse met inventor Louise Daguerre in Paris in 1839 and published the first description of the new technique in the United States. He was also one of the first Americans to make daguerrotypes.
The Smithsonian has continued to collect photographic equipment and examples of new processes ever since. Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum's collection holds examples of cameras noted for their innovative design.
The 1972 Polaroid SX-70 revolutionized instant photography. Its handsome leather and brushed-chrome housing folded flat and fit in a jacket pocket. Each 10-print film pack contained a built-in battery powering the camera. A user could watch the image appear over a few minutes, making the SX-70 a runaway success.
Wilson “Snowflake” Bentley, working in the cold outdoors on his family’s Vermont farm, pioneered the technique of photomicrography, becoming the first to photograph a snowflake.
He captured more than 5,000 snow crystals, illuminating their infinite variety and beauty. To ensure their preservation for the future, he donated a collection of 500 of these images to the Smithsonian in 1903.
In addition to documenting exhibitions, specimens, and the internal activities of the Smithsonian, staff photographers over the course of the institution’s history have also recorded events happening on and around the National Mall: the Folklife Festival, presidential inaugurations, protests and more.
Smithsonian photographer Jeff Tinsley captured the display of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt on the Ellipse in front of the White House in October 1989.
