| 1854 | Europe • France
| André Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri is granted a patent for carte-de-visite. Eight poses were made on a single sheet and then they could be cut down to 2 1/4 x 3 1/2 inches and mounted on a 2 1/2 x 4 inch card.
His studio was established using the dowry of his wife Elizabeth who was also a photographer and his business partner. (McCauley, Elizabeth A., 1985, A.A.E. Disderi and the Carte De Visite Portrait Photograph, Yale University Press) (November 1854) |
| 1854 | Asia • India | Photographic Society of Bombay is founded |
| 1854 | Europe • Great Britain | At the first exhibition of the Photographic Society in London Roger Fenton explains the photographs to the royal party of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. |
| 1854 | North America • USA
| George Eastman (1854-1932) is born in Waterville, New York. (12 July 1854) |
| 1854 | Europe • Great Britain
| Philip Henry Delamotte photographs the opening ceremony of the Crystal Palace at Sydenham. This is the culmination of his study of the entire rebuilding process and is one of the first examples of photojournalism. (10 June 1854)
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| 1854 | Europe • Great Britain
| Ambrotypes (collodion positives) make their first appearance having being invented by Frederick Scott Archer (1813-1857) with the assistance of Peter Fry. Being a negative on a glass base they were cheaper than the Daguerreotype but retained the clarity of detail. |
| 1854 | Europe • Great Britain | George Swan Nottage (1823-85) founds the London Stereoscopic Company. The company has the motto "a stereoscope in every home" and within a few years boasts over 100,000 views in circulation. |
| 1854 | Europe • Great Britain | First public meeting to found the Photographic Society of London.
"A number of Gentlemen engaged in Photographic pursuits having met together at different periods of the Spring and Autumn last year, formed themselves into a provisional Committee, with a view of organizing a Society of those to whom such a re-union would be acceptable. The labours of this Committee were carried on until the beginning of the present year, when it was determined to call a Public Meeting, for which purpose Circulars were issued on behalf of the Committee by Mr Roger Fenton, the Honorary Secretary, and Advertisements were inserted in the Papers....
A Public Meeting to inaugurate this Society will be held at the house of the Society of Arts, John Street, Adelphi, on THURSDAY, the 20th January, at 4 pm."
[From the Journal of the Photographic Society of London on the founding of the society. The first Committee of the Society included John Dillwyn Llewelyn, Rev Calvert Jones and Philip Delamotte.] (20 January 1854) |
| 1854 | Europe • France | Société Française de Photographie is founded based upon the earlier Société Héliographique which had been founded in 1851. |
| 1854 | North America • USA | W. & F. Langenheim make the first American stereographs. |
| 1854 | North America • USA
| James Ambrose Cutting receives a US patent for the ambrotype process, known as the bromide patent. The name ambrotype comes from the Greek ambrotos meaning immortal. |
| 1854 | North America • USA
| Southworth & Hawes are issued a patent (No: 11,304) for taking daguerreotypes for stereoscopes. (11 July 1854)
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| 1855 | North America • USA
| George Robinson Fardon takes photographs for the album San Francisco Album. Photographs of the Most Beautiful Views and Public Buildings of San Francisco (ca. 1855). This album of albumenized salt prints is published by Herre & Bauer and has the distinction of being the first album of photographs of any American city.
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| 1856 | North America • Canada | William Notman commences his stereographic photographs of the city of Montreal. |
| 1856 | Europe • Great Britain | John Benjamin Dancer applies for a patent for a stereoscopic camera (patent 2064, applied for: 1856-09-05, granted: 1857-02-27), allowing both images to be taken at the same time. Sets of stereographs quickly become popular. |
| 1856 | North America • USA
| Neff's Patent for Melainotype plates. (19 February 1856) |
| 1857 | Europe • Great Britain | Photography by Lady Elizabeth Eastlake is published in the London Quarterly Review. |
| 1857 | Europe • Great Britain
| Queen Victoria purchases the allegorical photomontage The Two Ways of Life by Oscar Gustave Rejlander at the Art Treasures Exhibition in Manchester. [Read about] |
| 1857 | North America • USA
| Alexander Beckers of New York City patents a stereo-viewer with a revolving mechanism which allows multiple views of different types to be inspected sequentially by turning a knob. (7 April 1857) |
| 1858 | Europe • France
| Nadar takes the first aerial photograph from a balloon over Paris. |
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