Wait, They Actually Ranked The Oldest Photos Ever Taken?!

Say hello to the oldest photo that’s still kicking around! Joseph Nicéphore Niépce took it around 1826, and it’s basically a ghostly look from his window at Le Gras in France. Took hours to snap - like, the sun moved while the plate soaked up the light - making it less “snap” and more “glacial exposure.” But this bad boy started the whole photography party!

Picture this: in 1882, William N. Jennings managed to freeze lightning bolts on camera for the first time ever. Yup, he caught Mother Nature’s electric freakout right above Philadelphia. This shot was a total game-changer, letting scientists (and thrill-seekers) see lightning like never before.

Talk about an OG selfie! In 1839, Robert Cornelius didn’t just pull out his phone - he rigged up a camera, uncovered the lens, dashed into frame, and held still long enough to snap one of history’s first self-portraits. No filters, no instant sharing - just pure pioneer energy.

Imagine trying to snap Niagara Falls in 1858 when cameras needed long exposures and fast water just blurred into white mess. This early shot nailed it, freezing some of the waterfall action. It’s a big deal because it showed photographers they could trap movement, not just still stuff.

New Year's Day 1889 meant more than resolutions - it meant science! A team photographed a total solar eclipse in California by layering shots at different exposures. When combined, they revealed the sun's glowing corona in stunning detail. Talk about starting the year with a bang!

Taking a photo underwater in the 1800s? Nope, not easy. Louis Boutan dove into this wild challenge in 1899, building a bulky waterproof box for his camera and inventing an underwater flash that was basically a tiny explosion using alcohol and magnesium powder. Risky? Absolutely. Cool? Super!

This young lady is Dorothy Catherine Draper - the earliest known woman ever caught on camera. Her brother, John William Draper, took this super-clear portrait around 1839 or 1840. Dorothy had to stay completely still for 65 seconds and even had flour on her face to pop out the details. Talk about dedication to the art!

Who would've guessed a farmer in South Dakota managed to snap a tornado in 1884? This is probably the oldest tornado photo ever taken, and back then, cameras were so slow that catching fast weather like this was practically impossible. Talk about being in the right place at the right time!

July 20, 1976 - NASA’s Viking 1 lands on Mars and beams back this unprecedented pic of its own footpad chilling on red dirt. It was humanity’s first real look from another planet’s surface and totally changed our view of the cosmos. Space explorers, this one’s for you!

Long before moon landings were a thing, John W. Draper gave astronomy a glow-up by snapping the very first photo of the moon in 1840 from a New York rooftop. The pic is a bit blurry, but hey, it was groundbreaking! Moon gazing will never be the same.

In 1845, French scientists zoomed in on the sun with a crazy-fast shutter (1/60th of a second - lightning speed back then!) and captured the first photo showing sunspots. It was like giving a giant spotlight on our star with science’s very own camera-long-range zoom.

Long before selfies had filters, Louis Ducos du Hauron played with color photography in 1877. This early color shot of Agen, France, feels like a painter just soaked the world in paint. Spoiler: it’s one of the oldest color photos ever surviving - and still beautiful!

Louis Daguerre snagged a street scene of Paris in 1838 that accidentally included a sneaky human! The trick? The camera’s long exposure blurred all the movers and shakers - except one shiny figure getting a shoe shine. That random guy became the first person ever to appear in a photograph. History made by standing still!

Skipping the usual post-battle pictures, this snap was taken smack dab during the Battle of Sedan in 1870. The guy behind the camera caught actual troops advancing, making this one of the first ever war photos taken amidst cannon fire. Imagine dodging bullets AND taking pics - hero status unlocked.

Before drones and satellites, a fearless camera man hopped in a hot-air balloon 2,000 feet above Boston in 1860. The result? The world’s first successful aerial photo, giving a bird’s eye view that must have made people’s heads spin. Imagine looking down over Boston from a balloon - classic old-school cool.

William Edward Kilburn snapped one of the earliest photos of a political protest ever recorded - the 1848 Chartist Meeting in London. Thousands showed up demanding the vote, and thanks to this photo, we can peek into a roaring crowd from nearly two centuries ago. Protest goals: captured on film!

This 1857 daguerreotype of Lord Shimazu Nariakira wasn’t just a photo - it was a treasure! After his death, it was so prized it became an object of worship. Then it vanished for 100 years, only to be rediscovered in a warehouse in 1975. Talk about a photographic plot twist!

Photographers loved old ruins from day one, and this 1842 shot captures the massive Temple of Olympian Zeus in Athens. Ancient and awesome, snapped nearly 200 years ago to show how history looked then - an early camera meets ancient culture.

The first-ever photo of Earth from the Moon! In 1966, Lunar Orbiter I swung around the Moon and snapped this crescent Earth hanging in space like the ultimate photo bomb from outer space. Talk about perspective!

French photographer Auguste Salzmann trekked to Jerusalem in 1854 to document its ancient ruins, capturing the Tomb of St. James in the Valley of Josaphat. This photo was later published, helping people get a real look at sacred places long before the internet was a thing.

Prince Albert got in front of the lens in 1842 for what’s now the oldest surviving British royal photo. It was a personal gift to Queen Victoria, who simply said, “Saw the photographs which are quite good.” Sometimes, royal reviews are this casual.

Back in 1855, brothers Nadar pulled off an epic marketing move: hiring mime Charles Deburau to strike silly faces as Pierrot for headshots. These quirky expressions helped make their studio famous, proving that even in the 1800s, good pics sell!

Before announcing his groundbreaking photo invention, Louis Daguerre flexed his skills with this detailed still life of plaster casts and art in 1837. It wasn’t just art - it was a brilliant showcase that proved his new technique captured texture and light like nothing before.

Explorer Hiram Bingham didn’t just find Machu Picchu - he also took its earliest photos in 1912 after clearing the jungle overgrowth. This wasn’t just a pretty picture, but the first time the world could see the “lost city” in all its mysterious glory, cementing its place in history.

Eadweard Muybridge had an epic mission: prove if horses ever fly (aka have all four hooves off the ground). Using a bunch of cameras triggered by tripwires along a racetrack, he finally captured this legendary sequence in 1878, basically inventing motion pictures as we know them. Spoiler alert: horses do fly!

The very first durable color photo wasn’t clicked in one go - it was a super smart trick from James Clerk Maxwell. In 1861, he took three black-and-white pics of a tartan ribbon, each through a different color filter, then layered them to make the first real color image ever. This invention basically invented color photos as we know them!

This spooky pic from 1848 shows Paris barricades during a failed uprising - the first known photo snapped live at a news event. Because the camera needed forever to capture it, none of the fighters showed up, just the empty scene. It’s like a ghost story in photo form with loads of history!

This calm, quiet 1847 photo shows patient Edward Gilbert Abbott right before surgery - WITHOUT the yelp-and-scream medical chaos before ether anesthesia. It’s a historic snap of one of the most important medical breakthroughs: pain-free surgery. Bonus points for bravery and science winning big!

This rare 1853 shot captures a peaceful moment in a Cheyenne village at Big Timbers, Colorado. With tipis and trees chilling in the background, it gives a quiet, valuable look into Native American life before big changes swept the West. History with some serious chill vibes.

This 1844 portrait shows Louis Daguerre, the guy who fine-tuned photography and gave us the daguerreotype. Teaming up with Niépce, he made photography faster and clearer, kicking off a sensation that spread worldwide. Basically, if photos had a celebrity, it’s him.

Imagine the first time someone thought: 'Hey, let’s take a photo of a real arrest!' This 1847 daguerreotype did just that, freezing a man’s arrest in France. The crime itself is mystery, but the photo was made to inform the public - basically the start of news photography.

This powerful 1908 photo shows the crash of the Wright Flyer at Fort Myer. The plane’s propeller broke mid-flight, causing a crash where Orville Wright got hurt, but passenger Lt. Thomas Selfridge unfortunately died - marking the world’s first fatal airplane crash. Sad but historic moment caught on camera.

Here’s a humble haystack that made history in 1844 by appearing in the first-ever commercially published photo book, William Henry Fox Talbot’s "The Pencil of Nature." Suddenly, photos weren’t just for science or art - they were in books you could own. What a time to be alive!

Not all photos are serious. This 1844 snapshot is basically folks just chilling and having a drink. It features photographer David Octavius Hill with friends and a bottle of Edinburgh ale that was so strong it could 'glue lips together.' History and hangouts, perfectly mixed.

Before Broadway was Broadway, it was a peaceful country road in New York. This 1848 daguerreotype captures a quiet estate on the Old Bloomingdale Road, offering a rare snapshot of Manhattan’s peaceful past before the city exploded into the bustling metropolis we know now.

In this 1859 daguerreotype, a blacksmith is caught mid-swing, forging a horseshoe like a total pro. What’s cooler? The photographer was Sarah L. Judd, one of the OG women photographers running her own studio when the art was just getting started. Girl power with a hammer and camera!

Before Instagram, before smartphones, in 1957, Russell Kirsch fed a baby’s photo through the first rotating-drum scanner ever. The result? A grainy, pixelated digital image of his infant son that kicked off the digital photo revolution. Pixels, assemble!

This is allegedly the oldest photo of a U.S. president - John Quincy Adams. Taken years after his presidency in 1843, the serious look on his face gives us a rare, real-life peek at a founding-era American leader. No fancy filters, just history staring back.

Before the beard and the big speeches, here’s a clean-shaven 37-year-old Abraham Lincoln from 1846 or so. Caught right after he got elected to Congress, this handful-of-years-old photo shines a rare light on Abe before he became THE Lincoln we all know.

On April 14, 1861, this photo captured the day after Fort Sumter surrendered, complete with a Confederate flag flying high. It’s one of the first photos marking the start of the American Civil War, and with its 3D stereoscopic design, it was like a mini time-travel trip into history.

This 1847 photo is like a chill war vibe, showing General John E. Wool and pals moving into Saltillo after the city fell. It’s one of the earliest war pics capturing not battle, but the big moves behind the scenes. War photography was getting serious - documenting history the new way!

Shot right from Louis Daguerre’s window in 1838, this photo catches a bustling Paris street. Thanks to long exposure times, moving people vanished into ghosts, but still, it’s an exciting glimpse into the earliest days of street photography. Hint: that shoe shine guy made a cameo!

Though the original photo is lost, this 1850 copy of a painted portrait stands in for the first photo taken of a sitting U.S. president - William Henry Harrison. It’s a historical placeholder reminding us that some old photos play the part of memory keepers, even when the original vanishes.