# Who was the First Theologian to be Photographed?



## ChristopherPaul (Oct 7, 2006)

This may be a strange trivia type question. 

Old photographs interest me. We always see the historic theologians pictured through portraits
(eg. , , , , :Owen:, , , , , , , , ,  ).

I wonder if anyone knows who was the first, or among the first, to be photographed.

The first US President to be photographed was John Quincy Adams. So that may give you an idea of the era when photographs were possible.


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## NaphtaliPress (Oct 7, 2006)

Maybe the host of Free Church ministers photographed by David Octavius Hill & Robert Adamson in 1843 at the first GA of the Free Church. This included Fairbairn, Cunningham, Begg, and Thomas Chalmers.
http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/portrait.asp?LinkID=mp00033&rNo=12&role=art
http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/p...thomas+chalmers&LinkID=mp00820&rNo=0&role=sit
The calotype was invented in 1841.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calotype


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## ChristopherPaul (Oct 7, 2006)

Very cool!

That would certainly be a good contender.


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## ChristopherPaul (Oct 10, 2006)

No one else wants to give this a shot?

*cough*andrew*cough*


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## Pergamum (Oct 10, 2006)

Does the Shroud of Turin count!?!?! 













Just kidding....


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## NaphtaliPress (Oct 10, 2006)

According to histories online the first human photographic portrait was a self portrait by Dutch Chemist Robert Cornelius in 1839. Both Calotypes, which made a plate from which multiple copies could be made, and the French Daguerreotype which made a single original were invented about this time. The Calotype was proposed first but the daguerreotype was the first commercial process. So I guess some of the earliest minister portraits would be the 1843 Free Church ones I noted above. However, there are several years prior in which some individual might have sat for a Daguerreotype or Calotype between 1839 and 1843.


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## caddy (Oct 10, 2006)

^^^ 

Fascinating !


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## caddy (Oct 10, 2006)

Do you have the link to this pic ChristopherPaul ?


J.Q.Adams 




> _Originally posted by ChristopherPaul_
> This may be a strange trivia type question.
> 
> Old photographs interest me. We always see the historic theologians pictured through portraits
> ...


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## ChristopherPaul (Oct 10, 2006)

> _Originally posted by caddy_
> Do you have the link to this pic ChristopherPaul ?
> 
> 
> ...



No, I would have to search for it. I read it and saw it in a book many years ago.


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## ChristopherPaul (Oct 10, 2006)

This is from wikipedia. It said it was taken shortly before his death which was 1848, so perhaps this is it.


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## caddy (Oct 10, 2006)

According to this link:

http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/weekly/aa110100a.htm


President John Tyler (1841-1845) became the first president to have his photograph taken.

This site says J.Q. Adams:

http://content.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=4670

[Edited on 10-10-2006 by caddy]


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Oct 10, 2006)

John Quincy Adams, Summer 1843 Daguerreotype:






See this article on JQA and this for additional information about the history of presidential photographic portraits.


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## caddy (Oct 10, 2006)

^^
We all knew Andrew would come through !

Thanks


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## caddy (Oct 10, 2006)

On the day President Harrison delivered his ill-fated inaugural speech, March 4, 1841, he paused to have his formal photographic portrait taken in the Capitol. Harrison favored the request of photographers Justus E. Moore, a prominent Philadelphia dentist, and his partner “Captain” Ward. The two men were successfully engaged in taking daguerreotype likenesses of many 

of the most distinguished members of the House of Representatives and Senate. In a letter published in the Philadelphia Inquirer, President Harrison was reported to have been “delighted with the results” of the sitting.1 Just 31 days after his inauguration, President Harrison died from pneumonia. Unfortunately, the present location of the daguerreotype portrait of the ephemeral President Harrison is unknown. The lost image is of considerable historical importance, as it represents the first photograph of a United States president taken while in office. Three of Harrison’s immediate predecessors, Presidents John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, and Martin Van Buren, had their daguerreotype likenesses made after leaving office. Several of these images are extant.


John Quincy Adams

The earliest known photograph of a president of the United States is a faint and scratched daguerreotype likeness of John Quincy Adams, who served as chief executive from 1825 to 1829 and later as a member of Congress until his death in office in 1848. This likeness of the former President Adams was taken at the gallery of Bishop and Gray in early August 1843 in Utica, New York. President Adams, then 76 years old, was returning from a visit to Niagara Falls and stopped at Utica to see an old friend, Judge Ezeikiel Bacon. In his diary for August 1, 1843, Adams remarked, “Four daguerreotype likenesses of my head were taken, two of them jointly with the head of Mr. Bacon. All hideous.” Adams continued his diary entry the following day, “At seven this morning Mr. Bacon came and I went with him to the Shadow Shop, where three more Daguerreotype likeness were taken of me, no better than those of yesterday. They are all too true to the original.”2

The humorous account of President Adams’s experience at the photographer’s gallery is not unlike other reports by early sitters. In 1843 photography was still an embryonic industry in which “bolt upright” poses and vacuous stares were considered requisite elements for the lengthy and slow exposure times the daguerreotype camera demanded. The startled reactions of the sitters to their portraits may have stemmed from their initial encounter with reality; after all, the daguerreotype was simply a mirror with a memory. The process may have conveyed too many “warts” for patrons long accustomed to the forgiving brush strokes of the painter.


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## ChristopherPaul (Oct 10, 2006)

> _Originally posted by VirginiaHuguenot_
> John Quincy Adams, Summer 1843 Daguerreotype:
> 
> 
> ...



Thanks Andrew (I knew you would pull through  ).

That is an interesting link about the presidents. I remember seeing the photograph of Jackson back in my teen years. The article is very interesting because I remember that it is not a pleasant photo – in fact I remember it being quite scary.

However, I haven’t been able to find many of these photos online.


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Oct 10, 2006)

Some Matthew Brady daguerreotypes of interest:

Lyman Beecher (portrait dated 1845 - 1850):






Unidentified clergyman holding Bible (portrait dated 1840 - 1860):






Cardinal John McCloskey (portrait dated 1844 - 1860):






Cardinal Nicholas Patrick Wiseman, Archbishop of Westminster, England (portrait dated 1844 - 1860):






Bishop Philander Chase, Protestant Episcopal Church (portrait dated 1844 - 1852):


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## ChristopherPaul (Oct 10, 2006)

> E-mail: My homework is: "Who was the first president to be photographed?" [photo, photos, picture taken]
> 
> Reply 1: John Quincy Adams.
> 
> ...



I found this information here.


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## bookslover (Oct 15, 2006)

> _Originally posted by ChristopherPaul_
> This may be a strange trivia type question.
> 
> Old photographs interest me. We always see the historic theologians pictured through portraits
> ...



Believe it or not, I own the only known photograph of Moses. It shows him trudging across the desert with a pained expression on his face. The photographer is unknown. However, for some reason, I can't remember where I put it...


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