We become accustomed to seeing lavish paintings of historical figures like George Washington through the years of history classes we take in school, but it’s amazing to consider that the earliest known photograph was created just 27 years after Washington’s passing in 1799! And today, nearly 200 years later, none of us could possibly imagine life without the sophisticated cameras in our smartphones. See some images of historical figures by continuing to read… Any history enthusiast must read it!
Historical Personages Who Survived Long Enough To Be Captured On Camera
John Quincy Adams
The son of the nation’s first president, John Adams, John Quincy Adams served as the country’s sixth leader. Despite having feelings of inferiority toward his well-known political family, historians have referred to him as “underrated” during his time in politics. This image was taken in 1843, and Adams was born in 1767. It’s pretty incredible to consider that people who were born in the 1700s survived long enough to be captured on camera.
John Quincy Adams
Charles Darwin
It is possible that many people are unaware that photographs of Charles Darwin, who was born in 180 9, exist. Darwin is widely regarded as one of the most well-known scientists of all time. Britannica notes that by the time of Darwin’s death in 1882, “evolutionary imagery had spread through all of science, literature, and politics.” It is estimated that this photograph was taken in 1854.
Charles Darwin
Uncle Sam
Uncle Sam is a real person; you might not have known that! Uncle Sam, in case you didn’t know, is the iconic patriotic figure featured on the “I want you for U.S. army” recruitment poster. Uncle Sam, the real one, was a meat packer in Troy, New York, and he was born Samuel Wilson there in 1766. He supplied meat in barrels to soldiers during the War of 1812. People joked that the “U.S.” branding on the barrels meant “Uncle Sam” instead of the more official “United States.” As time went on, the trope became commonplace everywhere (literally). It was taken sometime in the 1850s, but this is the only known photograph of Wilson.
Uncle Sam
Daniel F. Bakeman
Daniel F. Bakeman, who served in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War and later received a veteran’s pension, lived from 1759 until 1869. This picture of him was taken in 1868, when he was 109 years old, just one year before he passed away.
Daniel F. Bakeman
Frederick Douglass
Solemn-faced After he escaped from Maryland while still a slave, Frederick Douglass became a symbol of the abolitionist movement in the 1800s. Dated between 1847 and 1852, this image was likely captured then. Douglass reportedly cared a great deal about how he was perceived by the public and actively sought to present himself as a serious, stern figure. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a prominent feminist of the nineteenth century, aptly characterized Douglass as “majestic in his wrath.”
Frederick Douglass
John Tyler
A sudden illness claimed the life of William Henry Harrison, and his 1790-born vice president, John Tyler, took over as president immediately. Even though he was a strong supporter of state sovereignty, Tyler has a negative reputation. These images date back to 1845. As of the year 2020, Harrison Ruffin Tyler, John Tyler’s grandson, will be 93 years old.
John Tyler
Emily Dickinson
It’s surprising that Emily Dickinson didn’t become a household name during her lifetime, given the enduring popularity of her poetry. In fact, she wrote over 1,800 poems, but only a small fraction of them were ever published in her lifetime (she passed away in 1886). Dickinson, who was born in 1830, had a sad and lonely life. All we have of her beyond her childhood is the 1847 photograph shown above.
Emily Dickinson
Billy the Kid
One of the most infamous gunmen of the American Old West, Henry McCarty, or “Billy the Kid,” was born in 1859. Before his own death at age 21 in 1881, he killed eight other people.
Billy The Kid
Abraham Lincoln
The 16th president of the United States was born in 1809 and is widely considered to be among the most lauded politicians in American history. When this picture was taken, Lincoln was 37 years old and on his way to Washington D.C. as a lawyer and a congressman. The image is the earliest known photograph of him.
Abraham Lincoln
Franklin Pierce
To put it mildly, the 14th president of the United States was not well-liked. He was critical of Abraham Lincoln while Lincoln was in office because he thought the abolitionist movement was dangerous. And after Lincoln was killed, a mob reportedly had to be “persuaded” not to destroy his house. About 1855, when this picture was taken.
Franklin Pierce
Harriet Tubman
Harriet Tubman is another well-known figure from the abolitionist movement of the 1800s. She was born Araminta Ross in 1822. She is best remembered as a driving force behind the Underground Railroad, a system of underground tunnels and other means of escape used to get slaves to free areas of the United States and Canada. Photographed in Auburn, New York in 1868.
Harriet Tubman
Robert E. Lee
A major part of Robert E. Lee’s notoriety stems from the fact that he was a controversial Confederate general during the American Civil War. Lee was born in 1807 to a soldier who had served in the Revolutionary War, and he continues to be reviled for his stance on slavery. In this 1845 photo, he is shown alongside his son, William Henry Fitzhugh Lee.
Robert E. Lee
George Armstrong Custer
George Armstrong Custer, born in 1839, is pictured here in 1860 before he began sporting his now-iconic mustache. From failing out of the United States Military Academy to being labeled a “foolish” cavalry officer whose tactical abilities are still up for debate, his entire life was defined by failure. During the climactic Battle of Little Bighorn, where he was ultimately killed, he suffered a spectacular defeat that has become legendary. Custer’s Last Stand describes this moment in history.
George Armstrong Custer
Calamity Jane
Legends abound about the life of Martha Jane Cannary, better known as Calamity Jane, a frontierswoman who was born in 1852 but became famous during the Wild West era. In fact, there are so many legends surrounding her life that to this day it’s unclear what’s actually true! Timeframe for this image is from the 1880s.
Calamity Jane
Marie Curie
Marie Curie was born in Poland in 1867 and was a chemist and physicist. She was the first woman ever to be awarded a Nobel Prize, and she is still the only woman to have won the Nobel Prize more than once. 1900 was the year that this photograph of her was taken.
Marie Curie
Ichabod Crane
The name Ichabod Crane may sound familiar, as he appeared in Washington Irving’s 1820 story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. However, Irving never claimed that Colonel Ichabod Crane was based on a real person. However, the real Ichabod Crane was born in 1787 and had a nearly 50-year military career. In 1848, when this picture was taken.
Ichabod Crane
Chief Seattle
Washington state is the birthplace of Chief Seattle, a prominent leader of the Suquamish and Duwamish tribes. He was born in 1786. His efforts to build relationships with white settlers in the Pacific Northwest led to the naming of Seattle in his honor. The year 1864 is clearly visible in this photograph.
Chief Seattle
Lev Tolstoy
You probably read the works of Lev Tolstoy, a Russian author born in 1828, in your high school honors English class. His most famous works are War and Peace and Anna Karenina. Every year from 1902 to 1906, he was considered for the Nobel Prize in Literature because of his reputation as one of the greatest authors of all time. The fact that he was never awarded the Nobel Peace Prize remains a contentious issue. In 1908, when this photo was taken, he was 80 years old.
Lev Tolstoy
Vincent van Gogh
Seeing a photograph of the 1853-born van Gogh, who is so commonly depicted in art, is shocking. Despite his obvious talent as a visionary post-impressionist painter, he never achieved widespread acclaim during his lifetime. His sister-in-law inherited his paintings and loaned them out to various art exhibitions only after his untimely death at the age of 37. Vincent van Gogh was 19 years old when this photo was taken of him in 1872.
Vincent Van Gogh
Conrad Heyer
Conrad Heyer, who was born in 1749, is the earliest-born American to appear in photographic history and maybe the earliest-born person in history overall. He served as George Washington’s soldier during the Revolutionary War and may have even crossed the Delaware River with the general. In this 1852 photo, he’s already 103 years old.
Conrad Heyer
Andrew Jackson
American history may record Andrew Jackson as one of the most reviled presidents in its annals. Many Native Americans perished under his administration, and he was branded a tyrant by his detractors. Jackson was pictured here in 1844 or 1845, not long before his death. He was born in 1767.
Andrew Jackson
James K. Polk
It’s possible that the 11th president of the United States, James K. Polk (born in 1795), is not as well remembered as he should be, but his administration accomplished a great deal. He accomplished all of his goals, which included acquiring three new territories for the United States, ending a border dispute between Texas and another state, reducing tariffs, and bolstering the power of the executive branch. Photo of Polk from 1849.
James K. Polk
Arthur Wellesley, First Duke of Wellington
General of the British Army during the Napoleonic Wars, Arthur Wellesley was born in 1769. Because of his success at Waterloo, Napoleon’s wars were finally put to an end, and he was hailed as a European hero. From 1828 to 1830, he led Britain as its prime minister. Taken in 1844, this image depicts him at the height of his popularity.
Arthur Wellesley, First Duke Of Wellington
Geronimo
Goyahkla, better known as Geronimo, was an Apache tribal chief. During the last 20 years of his life, Geronimo, who was born in 1829, was a prisoner of war for the United States military. Snapped in 1887.
Geronimo
Johnny Appleseed
We all heard the stories about Johnny Appleseed as kids, but you might not know that he actually existed. John Chapman, also known as Johnny Appleseed, was a pioneer nurseryman who spread apple trees across several states after his birth in Massachusetts in 1774. Don’t be fooled by the photo; he also had a reputation for extreme kindness and became a living legend for it. Timeframe for this image is from the 1840s.
Johnny Appleseed
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Beecher Stowe, an abolitionist and author born in 1811, is best known for her 1852 novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin. She received widespread acclaim as she gave speeches about the book and her stance against slavery across the country. Since women weren’t encouraged to speak in public at the time, her brothers or husband usually did so on her behalf. It was in 1870 that this photograph was taken.
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Besides having the most awesome name ever, To the Kingdom of Isambard Brunel (born in 1806) was a famous British engineer who reportedly constructed “twenty-five railway lines, over a hundred bridges, including five suspension bridges, eight pier and dock systems, three ships, and a prefabricated army field hospital.” The Great Eastern, one of Brunel’s ships, is featured in this 1857 photograph.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Jefferson Davis
Jefferson Davis, born in 1808, was the most well-known figure of the Civil War as the president of the Confederacy. He also served in the Mexican-American War, was a senator from Mississippi, and was Secretary of War under President Franklin Pierce. In 1861, only a few years before the Confederacy capitulated, this picture was taken.
Jefferson Davis
John Herschel
Sir John Herschel possessed a wide range of skills, from photography to chemistry to astronomy. Aside from these, he also developed the blueprint and popularized the Julian Day calendar, both of which are still in use by astronomers today. His life span was from 1792 to 1871. Julia Margaret Cameron took this photograph in 1867.
John Herschel
The Oldest Known Photograph
Most people have a very limited understanding of how far back the origins of photography go. As early as the fourth century BC, it was believed that light had the power to alter physical objects. In 1826, however, a French inventor named Joseph Nicéphore Niépce took a photograph of the grounds of his estate using a heated pewter plate coated with a solution of bitumen of Judea and water. Even though it looks like a smudge and required two days of exposure, this picture is commonly thought to be the first ever taken.
The Oldest Known Photograph
Butch Cassidy
Butch Cassidy, also born as Robert LeRoy Parker, was one of the most famous outlaws of the Wild West. Butch Cassidy, born in 1866, was the head of the Wild Bunch, a gang of robbers that robbed trains and banks. He was involved in criminal activity for approximately a decade before fleeing to Argentina with his accomplice Harry Alonzo Longabaugh (better known as “Sundance Kid”) and Longabaugh’s girlfriend Etta Place to avoid police authorities. This photograph was taken in the year 1900.
Butch Cassidy
Rasputin
Grigori Rasputin, a Russian mystic born in 1869 in a small hamlet in Siberia, befriended Tsar Nicholas II and his family. He gathered a following and was praised for his alleged healing abilities, and he was regarded to be the “secret” behind Russia’s monarchy. He was the target of multiple assassination attempts before being assassinated in 1916 by Prince Felix Yusupov. This photograph of him was taken not long before his death.
Rasputin
Jesse James
Another well-known name from the American Old West is Jesse James. James, who was born in 1847, was an outlaw and the commander of the James-Younger Gang. He also fought in the Civil War, becoming a member of pro-Confederate guerillas known as “Bushwhackers.” This photograph of James was shot in 1882.
Jesse James
John Brown
John Brown, born in 1800, was a militant abolitionist best known for commanding a raid on Harpers Ferry in West Virginia in October 1859. The raid was a failure, and Brown was executed a few months later. Augustus Washington, an African-American photographer, took this portrait of him in 1846 or 1847.
John Brown
Martin Van Buren
Martin Van Buren, born in 1782, was the eighth President of the United States and the first president to be born an American (rather than a British) citizen. Historians disagree over his presidential legacy, although most agree that he made major advances to the American political system. The above photograph was taken between 1849 and 1850.
Martin Van Buren
Hannah Stilley Gorby
Hannah Stilley Gorby is hardly a big name, yet she is remarkable for being the oldest person to have ever been photographed. Gorby was born about 1746 and photographed in 1840, nearly 94 years later. To put that in context, she was already in her late 30s when the American Revolution began.
Hannah Stilley Gorby
Alexander Millener
This photograph of 104-year-old American Revolutionary War veteran Alexander Milliner was taken in 1864, during the American Civil War.
Alexander Millener
Waterloo Veteran
The battle of Waterloo, which resulted in Napoleon’s final defeat, was one of the most significant in history, setting the stage for the next two centuries of human history, the consequences of which are still felt today. This photograph of a battle veteran was shot in the 1890s.
Waterloo Veteran
Annie Oakley
Annie Oakley, of Annie Get Your Gun fame, was one of America’s most well-known celebrities in the second half of the nineteenth century, thanks to her appearances in pulp novels and as a sharpshooter in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. Oakley was photographed far more than you would expect for someone born in 1860 as a result of his celebrity.
Annie Oakley
Queen Victoria
The future Queen Victoria was born in 1819, decades before photography. However, due to her incredible longevity (81 years), extended reign on the British throne (63 years), and tremendous influence, she became one of the most photographed ladies in history during the first century of photography.
Queen Victoria
Mark Twain
Mark Twain is often regarded as the greatest American writer of all time. The novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Pudd’nhead Wilson, and The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (co-authored with Charles Dudley Warner) were written by the author and comedian. In addition, before his death in 1910, Twain wrote hundreds of essays and travel guides while talking about current political and social issues around the world. A.F. took the above photograph in 1907. Bradley.
Mark Twain
Susan B. Anthony
Susan B. Anthony is regarded as one of the most influential women in American history. Anthony spent most of the 1800s advocating for women’s equal rights, especially the opportunity to vote. She was also a fervent abolitionist, and the Women’s Loyal National League, which she co-founded, amassed approximately 400,000 signatures in favor of the abolition of slavery during the Civil War. Anthony died in 1906, 14 years before the 19th Amendment (often known as the Susan B. Anthony Amendment) secured women the right to vote. The above photograph was taken about 1890.
Susan B. Anthony
Frank Gotch
Professional wrestling, comparable to the Olympic version we know now, was a serious sport in the early twentieth century. And there was no larger star in that manner than Frank Gotch. From 1908 until 1913, Gotch reigned as world champion, becoming a huge star and headlined contests that packed out baseball stadiums. Gotch retired and settled down with his family in 1916, but he died the following year at the age of 40 due to lingering health concerns. The photograph above was taken in 1917.
Frank Gotch
Abner Doubleday
Abner Doubleday had one of the most interesting lives in American history. He was the first to fire a shot in defense of Fort Sumter, the action that sparked the American Civil War, and he was a key figure in the action of Gettysburg. Following the war, Doubleday invented and patented the San Francisco cable car system, which is still in use today. Doubleday, who died in 1893, became much more famous 15 years later when the Mills Commission incorrectly attributed him with inventing baseball. Matthew Brady most likely took the above photograph in the mid-1800s.
Abner Doubleday
Otto Von Bismark
In the second half of the nineteenth century, Otto von Bismarck reshaped European politics for future generations. Bismarck dominated Prussia as minister-president beginning in 1862, and via military and political intrigues in 1870, he masterminded Germany’s unification, becoming chancellor of the German Empire until his death in 1890. Bismarck used European politics to ensure Germany became an international power, while accidentally setting the foundation for both great wars. Jacques Pilartz took the above photograph in 1890.
Otto Von Bismark
Buffalo Bill Cody
Buffalo Bill Cody is credited with inventing the Wild West as we know it today. In 1893, he established Buffalo Bill’s Wild West. His big touring group traversed the United States — and later the world – exposing cowboys, horses, and Native Americans to millions of people who had never been anywhere near the American frontier. Cody’s death in 1917 drew honors from King George V of England, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, and American President Woodrow Wilson. The above photograph was taken in 1871.
Buffalo Bill Cody
John Wilkes Booth
John Wilkes Booth was a well-known theatrical actor throughout his adult life. and was highly shot (for the period). Those photographs, like the man himself, would become infamous. On April 14, 1865, just five days after the American Civil War ended, Booth, a southerner and fervent Confederate, assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. Twelve days later, Booth was assassinated by Union forces. Alexander Gardner took the following photograph in 1865.
John Wilkes Booth
Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens was one of the most influential authors of the nineteenth century, with works such as The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, David Copperfield, Bleak House, Little Dorrit, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, and, of course, A Christmas Carol, which has been adapted thousands of times in various forms of media. Dickens is shown in the above shot about 1867 or 1868, only two years before his death.
Charles Dickens
PT. Barnum
P.T. Barnum was many things, including a circus owner, philanthropist, businessman, and pelican, but at his core, he was a showman. Barnum’s extravagant advertising technique and strong eye for what would delight the public made him a divisive phenomenon in his day, and a well-remembered historical figure in the century and a half following his death in 1891. Barnum was photographed multiple times throughout his career, with the top image dated from 1851.
PT. Barnum
Clara Barton
Without Clara Barton, medical history would be different. During the American Civil War, Barton, who had previously worked as a teacher and clerk, self-trained to be a nurse and became well-known for her brave advocacy on behalf of wounded troops on both sides of the struggle on and off the battlefield. Following the war, Barton was essential in convincing the American government to recognize the International Committee of the Red Cross, which led to the establishment of the American Red Cross. Barton died in 1912, eight years after the portrait above was taken by James Purdy.
Clara Barton