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1864. Union Army soldier at Confederate fortifications outside of Atlanta. Wet collodion glass-plate negative by George N. Barnard. View full size.
Earliest born person photographed? Although Daguerre is generally considedred the first to have taken a photograph of a person (see his capture of someone getting their shoes shined), I'll suggest that William Henry Fox Talbot took the first photo of someone clearly recognizable. His 1840 photograph of a coachman may stand as the oldest known photo of a person, and the oldest person (?) photographed.
Denny Gill
Chugiak, Alaska
[The commenter was asking: What person in a photograph has the earliest birth year? Possibly someone born in the 1730s or 1740s. - Dave]
Perhaps it was the play "Our American Cousin" by Tom Taylor.
Probably a Sidney Sheldon novel he picked up at the gift shot in the Atlanta airport during a six-hour flight delay. Just a guess.
Denny Gill
Chugiak, Alaska
Wonder what the book was he was reading.
Any ideas of what would be the oldest pictured person ever? Hmmm, hard to describe -- what I mean is: what is the earliest-born person ever photographed (e.g., a person born 1795, who was 75 years old, photographed in 1870, etc.)
[Probably an oldster photographed in the late 1830s. - Dave]
1864? Wow. That's 143 years! And that photo as good as those from my 3 MP digital camera!
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