The first volume (1839-1890) of the History of Photography series considers the years of the invention of photography and those immediately following; extraordinary years from both the point of view of history and of the development of the inventions, and also from that of its first distribution and the works realized. From the great early forebears, like Daguerre and Talbot, to the great photographic expeditions that placed the world before the eyes of an ever-increasing number of people, this first volume also stresses the fundamental links between photography and the world of science, with anthropology and all the disciplines and aspects of society.