We’ve become accustomed to seeing lavish paintings of historical people like George Washington at school, but it’s incredible to consider that the earliest-known photograph was taken just 27 years after Washington’s death in 1799! And today, over two centuries later, none of us can envision life without the sophisticated cameras on our phones. Continue reading to see some images of historical figures… It’s a must-read for any history buff!
Figures From History Who Lived Long Enough To Be Photographed
John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams was the son of Founding Father John Adams and the sixth President of the United States. Historians have labeled him “underrated,” despite the fact that his political career was marred by feelings of inadequacy in comparison to his powerful political family. Adams was born in 1767, and this photograph was snapped in 1843. Isn’t it incredible to imagine that people born in the 1700s lived long enough to be photographed?
John Quincy Adams
Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin, born in 1809, is without a doubt one of the most famous scientists of all time, yet many people are unaware that photographs of him exist. Darwin was so important in science that by the time he died in 1882, “evolutionary imagery had spread through all of science, literature, and politics,” according to Britannica. This photograph is thought to have been taken about 1854.
Charles Darwin
Uncle Sam
You might not have realized Uncle Sam was a real person! In case you’re not familiar, “Uncle Sam” is the well-known patriotic figure depicted on the poster that states, “I want you for the United States Army.” The real-life Uncle Sam, born Samuel Wilson in 1766, worked as a meat packer in Troy, New York. He supplied troops with meat shipped in barrels during the War of 1812. The barrels had the logo “U.S.,” which stood for “United States,” but many joked that it actually stood for “Uncle Sam.” The trope eventually spread, and the rest is history (literally). This photograph of Wilson was taken in the 1850s and is the only one known of him.
Uncle Sam
Daniel F. Bakeman
Daniel F. Bakeman (1759-1869) was the last living Revolutionary War soldier to receive a veteran’s pension. This photograph of him was taken in 1868, one year before his death, at the age of 109.
Daniel F. Bakeman
Frederick Douglass
The stern-faced After escaping slavery in Maryland, Frederick Douglass became a hero for the abolitionist movement in the 1800s. This photograph was taken between 1847 and 1852. Douglass was allegedly very mindful of his public appearance and desired to project an intense, harsh persona. As a result, well-known nineteenth-century feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton hailed Douglass as “majestic in his wrath.”
Frederick Douglass
John Tyler
After William Henry Harrison died abruptly of an undisclosed illness, John Tyler, born in 1790, became the 10th President of the United States. Tyler was a strong supporter of states’ rights, yet he is still not often regarded positively today. The photograph was taken in 1845 Harrison Ruffin Tyler, John Tyler’s grandson is still alive at the age of 93 in 2020!
John Tyler
Emily Dickinson
Given how well-known Emily Dickinson’s poetry is today, it’s surprising that she didn’t acquire much fame during her lifetime. In truth, just a few of the 1,800 poems she penned were published before her death in 1886. Dickinson, who was born in 1830, led a lonely and unhappy life. The photo above is the sole documented photo of her after childhood, which was shot in 1847.
Emily Dickinson
Billy The Kid
Billy the Kid, born Henry McCarty in 1859, is one of America’s most legendary gun-slinging criminals of the Old West. He murdered eight guys before dying at the age of 21 in 1881.
Billy The Kid
Abraham Lincoln
The sixteenth president, born in 1809, is undoubtedly one of the most distinguished political personalities in American history. This photograph was taken of Lincoln when he was 37 years old and a lawyer and congressman-elect. It is the first known photograph of him.
Abraham Lincoln
Franklin Pierce
To say the least, the 14th President of the United States was not popular. He saw the abolitionist movement as a menace to the country and criticized Abraham Lincoln while he was in power. Not to mention that following Lincoln’s assassination, he reportedly had to “persuade” a crowd not to demolish his home. This photograph was taken around the year 1855.
Franklin Pierce
Harriet Tubman
Harriet Tubman, born Araminta Ross in 1822, was another significant player in the 1800s abolitionist movement. She is well known for being a driving factor behind the Underground Railroad, which used a network of covert passageways to transport slaves to free American states and Canada. This photograph of her was shot in Auburn, New York in 1868.
Harriet Tubman
Robert E. Lee
Robert E. Lee is best remembered for his role as a divisive Confederate general during the American Civil War. Lee, who was born in 1807 to a Revolutionary War veteran, is still reviled today for his views on slavery. In 1845, he is pictured with his son, William Henry Fitzhugh Lee.
Robert E. Lee
George Armstrong Custer
This 1860 photograph depicts George Armstrong Custer (born in 1839) before he developed his famed mustache. His life was marked by defeat: he graduated from the United States Military Academy at the bottom of his class and went on to be renowned as a “foolish” cavalry officer whose tactical abilities are still questioned today. He is primarily remembered for his stunning defeat at the Battle of Little Bighorn, in which he was killed. Custer’s Last Stand is the name given to this incident today.
George Armstrong Custer
Calamity Jane
Calamity Jane, a frontierswoman, was born in 1852 and has been the subject of several legends from the days of the Wild West. Indeed, there are so many legends surrounding her life that it’s still uncertain what’s true! This photograph was taken in the 1880s.
Calamity Jane
Marie Curie
Marie Curie was an 1867-born Polish physicist and chemist. She was the first woman to get a Nobel Prize and the first woman to receive it twice. She was photographed in 1900.
Marie Curie
Ichabod Crane
You may recall the name Ichabod Crane from Washington Irving’s 1820 story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Interestingly, Irving never expressly said that the character was modeled after the real-life Colonel Ichabod Crane. Nonetheless, the actual Ichabod Crane was born in 1787 and was a military commander with a nearly 50-year career. The photograph was taken in 1848.
Ichabod Crane
Chief Seattle
Chief Seattle was born in 1786 and served as a chief for the Suquamish and Duwamish tribes in Washington State. He is remembered for his efforts to establish amicable relations with European settlers in the Pacific Northwest, and the city of Seattle was named after him as a result. The photograph was taken in 1864.
Chief Seattle
Lev Tolstoy
Lev Tolstoy, a renowned Russian writer born in 1828, is most known for his novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, both of which you presumably read in high school honors English class. He is still regarded as one of the finest writers of all time, and he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature every year between 1902 and 1906. Even now, it is regarded as a big scandal why he was never awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. This photograph was taken in 1908, when he was 80 years old.
Lev Tolstoy
Vincent Van Gogh
We’re all used to viewing paintings of van Gogh, who was born in 1853, so seeing an actual photo of the painter himself is shocking. Surprisingly, as a visionary post-impressionist painter, he never achieved much popularity during his lifetime. In fact, it wasn’t until his untimely death at the age of 37 that his sister-in-law inherited his paintings and loaned them to various art exhibitions. Van Gogh was 19 years old when this photograph was taken of him in 1872.
Vincent Van Gogh
Conrad Heyer
Conrad Heyer, born in 1749, is the earliest-born American to be photographed — and probably the earliest-born person in the world. He served alongside George Washington in the Revolutionary War and is said to have crossed the Delaware River with him. In 1852, he was 103 years old.
Conrad Heyer
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States, and he is often regarded as one of the most despised figures in American history. Many Native Americans were killed or mistreated under his rule, prompting some to label him a tyrant. Jackson was born in 1767 and was photographed here shortly before his death in 1844 or 1845.
Andrew Jackson
James K. Polk
Although most people don’t remember James K. Polk, the 11th President of the United States, he was very successful during his presidency. He accomplished all he set out to do, including acquiring three US territories, resolving a border issue with Texas, decreasing tariffs, strengthening the executive branch, and more. Polk was photographed in 1849.
James K. Polk
Arthur Wellesley, First Duke Of Wellington
Arthur Wellesley was born in 1769 and served as the British army commander throughout the Napoleonic Wars. His victory at the Battle of Waterloo effectively ended the Napoleonic Wars and established him as one of Europe’s most decorated war heroes. He later became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1828 to 1830. This photograph was taken of him in 1844.
Arthur Wellesley, First Duke Of Wellington
Geronimo
Goyahkla, or Geronimo as he is most commonly known, was an Apache tribal leader. Geronimo was born in 1829 and was known as the “last Native American leader to formally surrender to the US military,” and he spent the last 20 years of his life as a prisoner of war. The photograph was taken in 1887.
Geronimo
Johnny Appleseed
Many of us grew up hearing stories about Johnny Appleseed, but you may be surprised to realize that he was a real person. John Chapman, sometimes known as Johnny Appleseed, was born in Massachusetts in 1774 and rose to prominence as a pioneer nurseryman, introducing the apple tree to various states. Don’t be fooled by the photo; he was also known for being exceedingly nice, and he became a legend while still living. This photograph was taken in the 1840s.
Johnny Appleseed
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Beecher Stowe, born in 1811, was an abolitionist and writer best known for her 1852 novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin. To tremendous popularity, she toured around the country speaking about the book and her anti-slavery ideas. However, because women were not encouraged to speak publicly at the period, one of her brothers or husband would frequently speak to audiences on her behalf. This photograph was taken in the year 1870.
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Apart from having the coolest name ever, Isambard Kingdom Brunel (born in 1806) was an acclaimed British engineer who “built 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,” according to London’s Design Museum. Brunel was photographed in front of the Great Eastern, a ship he designed, in 1857.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Jefferson Davis
Jefferson Davis was born in 1808 and served in the Mexican-American War, as a Mississippi senator, and as Secretary of War under President Franklin Pierce, but he is most remembered as the Confederacy’s president during the Civil War. This photograph was shot in 1861, a few years before the Confederacy surrendered.
Jefferson Davis
John Herschel
Sir John Herschel was gifted in a variety of fields, including mathematics, chemistry, astronomy, and photography. He also created the blueprint and founded the Julian Day calendar, which is still used by astronomers today. Herschel lived between 1792 and 1871. Julia Margaret Cameron took this photograph in 1867.
John Herschel
The Oldest Known Photograph
The history of photography goes back much deeper than most people think. The idea that light can impact objects dates back to the fourth century BC. But it wasn’t until 1826 that a French inventor named Joseph Nicéphore Niépce used bitumen of Judea mixed with water on a pewter plate, which he then heated, to take a photograph of the outside of his estate. The photo looks like a smudge, and it took two full days to expose, but it is commonly considered the first photograph!
The Oldest Known Photograph
Butch Cassidy
Butch Cassidy, also born 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 was also a Civil War participant, organizing pro-Confederate guerillas known as “Bushwhackers.” James was photographed 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