Curatorial description
In 1850, Harvard's President Jared Sparks received a daguerreotype from photographer Samuel Humphrey. On September 1, 1849 Humphrey produced two daguerreotypes, each plate revealing nine distinct impressions of the moon taken at different exposures. The lunar surface in the three-second exposure was, as the Annual of Scientific Discovery noted, "so perfect, that its appearance, when examined under the microscope, somewhat resembled the full moon seen through a telescope."
