Panorama of Niagara Falls

Photography Studio W. & F. Langenheim American
 Frederick Langenheim American, born Germany
 Former Attribution William Langenheim American, born Germany

Not on view

In 1841-42 William and Frederick Langenheim opened a daguerreotype studio in Philadelphia. Known for their technical innovations, the former journalists were not the city's first but were certainly its most celebrated photographers. In 1845 the brothers traveled to Niagara Falls where they made the first ever photographs of the natural wonder. The panorama of five separate plates, assembled in an decorative mat to suggest the view from a colonnaded terrace, captures tremendous detail in the falling water, the figures, and the carriages in the foreground. The brothers produced eight sets of the panorama and sent them to the medium's inventor, Louis Daguerre, and to Queen Victoria, President Polk, the Duke of Brunswick, and the kings of Prussia, Saxony, and Wurtemberg. The recipients were duly impressed with their remarkable accomplishment, and the brothers received numerous citations and medals to acknowledge their achievement.

Panorama of Niagara Falls, W. & F. Langenheim (American, active 1843–1874), Daguerreotypes

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Panorama of Niagara Falls, W. & F. Langenheim (American, active 1843–1874), Daguerreotypes
Panorama of Niagara Falls, W. & F. Langenheim (American, active 1843–1874), Daguerreotypes
Panorama of Niagara Falls, W. & F. Langenheim (American, active 1843–1874), Daguerreotypes
Panorama of Niagara Falls, W. & F. Langenheim (American, active 1843–1874), Daguerreotypes
Panorama of Niagara Falls, W. & F. Langenheim (American, active 1843–1874), Daguerreotypes
Panorama of Niagara Falls, W. & F. Langenheim (American, active 1843–1874), Daguerreotypes

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