Fathers of Modern Photography: The Brothers Langenheim
Written by Ellen Lawson in the Features category and the Fall 1987 issue Topics in this article: Alexander Beckers, American Stereoscopic Company, Anna Langenheim Voigtlander, Casper W. Briggs, daguerreotype, Frederick David Langenheim, Germans, hyalotype process, Isenring process, Johann Bernhard Schneider, John Whipple, Josef Petzval, Langenheim Brothers Studio, Louis Daguerre, Louisa Langenheim Schneider, Marcus Root, Mashler stereoscope, motion pictures, Niagara Falls, Niepce de Saint Victor, Niepce process, Peter Friedrich Voigtlander, Philadelphia, photography, Sophia Palmer Langenheim, stereography, stereopticon, talbotypes, William and Frederick Langenheim, William Henry Fox Talbot, William LloydTwo brothers – German immigrants who left their native Brunswick and chanced upon one another in Philadelphia several years later – have been praised by scores of scholars and historians as the “Fathers of Modern Photography” for their technical contributions to the first twenty years of American photographic history. William and Frederick Langenheim achieved international fame as daguerreotypists and their works today are prized by the Library of Congress (which accepted transfers from the Smithsonian Institution as early as 1866), the Franklin Institute, the Eastman Kodak Museum, the Missouri Historical Society, as well as numerous European museums and collections. In this century, six of their daguerreotypes were showcased in the first photographic exhibit mounted by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1938. Between 1840 and 1874, when William died and Frederick retired, the brothers received more honors and awards from Philadelphia’s Franklin Institute for exhibits than any other photographers.
William Langenheim was born in 1807 and Frederick two years later. At the age of twenty-seven, William left Germany for the United States in 1834. He fought in the Texan War for Independence and was imprisoned by the Mexicans for more than a year. He later acted as a commissary sergeant in the Second Seminole War. In 1840, he traveled to Philadelphia where, only by accident, he encountered Frederick, who was employed by the city’s German language newspaper, Die Alte und Neue Welt.
Their two sisters in Europe, Louisa and Anna (also known as Nancy), proved instrumental in stimulating their fascination with the daguerreotype process shortly after its invention in 1839 by French inventor Louis Daguerre. Frederick probably brought from Europe a camera given to him by Johann Bernhard Schneider, Louisa’s husband. Earlier, Schneider had been a student in Vienna with Peter Friedrich Voigtlander, married to Anna Langenheim.
The camera developed by Louis Daguerre had a simple lens which required a great deal of light for exposure of the plate. Josef Petzval of Vienna designed a double lens, permitting sixteen times more light than Daguerre’s original 1839 camera. Voigtlander built cameras for Petzval with the lens, the first two of which he sent to Louis Daguerre; he shipped the third camera to Schneider who, in turn, passed it on to the Langenheim brothers in the United States. This camera was first introduced in Europe in May 1840, and Frederick and William Langenheim presumably had it in Philadelphia the following month.
By 1842, the Langenheims opened a business in the Philadelphia Exchange, and three years later established a studio conducted by Alexander Beckers in New York City. While Frederick managed the laboratory and technical aspects, his brother undertook the business details. In fact, patents were issued in Frederick’s name and most surviving business correspondence was written by William.
Realizing the importance of advertising, the Langenheim venture was among the first commercial photography studios to place notices in contemporary newspapers and periodicals; an 1844 advertisement, for example, enthusiastically touted – with some exaggeration – their venture as “an old and far-famed establishment!” They encouraged portraits not only of families and friends but of the sick and deceased, offering to visit one’s house to make the rather macabre portraits. They credited light, or the “Pencil of Nature,” with drawing the picture.
In July 1845, Frederick Langenheim journeyed to Niagara Falls, New York, making several daguerreotypes of what later became one of the most photographed, if not familiar, landscapes in the nineteenth century American consciousness. He was the first photographer to recognize its appeal, perhaps because his interests in Germany included agricultural pursuits and a keen love of the land. While most early daguerreotypists remained in their studios making portraits, Frederick carved a niche in American photographic history by hauling his cumbersome gear to the outdoors to record natural wonders.
The Langenheims produced eight sets of daguerreotypes of Niagara Falls from five different perspectives. These panoramas were made with such short exposures – especially for the era – that the people and horses near the waterfall were captured in perfect detail. Surely the brothers sensed the significance of these views; they sent copies to Pres. James K. Polk, England’s Queen Victoria, Louis Daguerre, the Duke of Brunswick and the kings of Prussia, Saxony and Wurttemberg. One set was retained by the Langenheims and later featured in the prestigious Museum of Modern Art’s landmark exhibit of 1938.
Louis Daguerre thanked the brothers for “sending me the charming view of Niagara, which is due to the amiable attention of Messrs. Langenheim. Besides the merit of these proofs of execution they have also the merit to represent one of the wonders of the known world.” Other accolades followed. On behalf of Queen Victoria, Lord Aberdeen wrote: “I have now the pleasure to acquaint you, that although it is general rule with her Majesty not to receive presents from any quarter, her Majesty has been graciously pleased to accept this view of the falls of Niagara and express her admiration at the great skill with which it has been taken.” The kings sent letters of appreciation – as well as medals honoring the Langenheims’ work. The May 7 and June 4, 1846, editions of The Philadelphia Public Ledger took notice of these depictions of Niagara Falls and urged individuals to visit the brothers’ studio in the Philadelphia Exchange and examine the remarkable views. Less than two decades later, an astute Marcus Root, in his 1864 Camera and Pencil, the first published history of photography, credited Frederick and William Langenheim with popularizing daguerreotypes by sending complimentary copies of their work to important social and political personages and by inviting the curious public to visit their studio and showrooms.
In 1846. William married Sophia Palmer of Philadelphia and Frederick, who remained a bachelor the rest of his life, made a daguerreotype of the couple, probably on their wedding day. The image may, indeed, be one of the first wedding photographs in American history!
Within a few years, and after the births of three children, Sophia Langenheim, twenty years younger than her husband, died at the age of twenty-six. The daguerreotypes taken by her husband and brother-in-law constitute one of the oldest and earliest family portrait collections in the country. The eldest child, Frederick David, was the subject of daguerreotypes from infancy and the images chronicle his childhood and youth. A surviving daguerreotype, albeit faded, was taken of the three Langenheim children before the death of the youngest, Sophia, in 1854.
Always eagerly following the technological strides in the emerging photographic industry, William and Frederick Langenheim tried to introduce a new process, a precursor of modern photography, to America in 1849. This new development, the talbotype, relied on alternate coatings of salt and silver nitrate on good writing paper, instead of Louis Daguerre’s original process of a silvered copper plate. William journeyed to England to negotiate the purchase of the American patent from William Henry Fox Talbot and paid one thousand pounds sterling, a considerable sum, for the rights. Shortly afterward, Talbot wrote his wife, “You know I had a patent in the U.S.A. for my invention of photographic pictures. I sold it yesterday for a large sum to an American gentleman who expects to make his fortune by this purchase. I hope he may as he seems a very amiable and intelligent person.”
During that summer, the Langenheims produced several successful talbotypes, including views of the Philadelphia Exchange and a “Lighthouse under Construction.” They speedily distributed handbills to fellow daguerreotypists, urging them to try the new process, and made sure an article explaining its usefulness appeared in the Daily National Intelligencer, published in Washington, D.C. Despite their excitement and enthusiastic marketing attempts, Frederick and William Langenheim failed with their promotion of the talbotype process, which resulted in their bankruptcy by the end of the year. Although several historians suggest that the early talbotypes were inferior to skilled daguerreotypes, it was possible that Americans simply preferred the solidity of the sturdy daguerreotype plate more than the talbotype paper as it may have reminded them of the durability of old minaitures. Other scholars suggest, however, that the brothers failed because they did not have adequate time to devote to the perfection and promotion of the talbotype process; zealots that they were, William and Frederick began working on another new development, the Niepce process.
The Niepce process, brainchild of Frenchman Niepce de Saint Victor, employed an albumen (egg white) solution to produce a photographic negative on glass. The Langenheims were the first in the United States to produce similar negatives, but furthered the development so that positives could be printed on glass plates, products they called hyalotypes. They also discovered that photographic transparencies could be transferred to ground or frosted glass, leading to the creation of magic lantern slides, a process for which they received a patent in 1850.
To popularize both talbotypes and hyalotypes, the Langenheims submitted samples of each for the Crystal Palace Exhibition in London in 1851. They were the only Americans to enter talbotypes and the only contestants to submit photographic positives on glass. They were awarded a medal and certificate for their hyalotypes, which the April 1851 edition of the London Art Journal described as “near an approach to perfection as we can imagine;’ noting that the process was lengthy and complicated. Among the one hundred and twenty-six magic lantern slides exhibited by the brothers were landscapes and portraits printed in a warm sepia. They sought to recoup some of their debt to Talbot by selling him the rights to the hyalotype process.
Following their acclaimed exhibit in London, Frederick Langenheim gave the first recorded slide-lecture tour when he journeyed through South America with images submitted to the Crystal Palace extravaganza, including views of Niagara Falls, assorted American landscapes, “magical and comical pictures” and microscopic studies. It was the microprints that prompted Marcus Root in 1864 to write that the Langenheims’ “microphotographs are far superior to any we have seen made by others on either side of the Atlantic.”
At about the same time as the Crystal Palace Exhibit, Frederick and William Langenheim established the American Stereoscopic Company in Philadelphia, which offered a novel, three-dimensional perspective of diverse subjects. The brothers used daguerreotypes, talbotypes and hyalotypes to make these new stereopticon images. Their Langenheim Stereoscope Peep-Show permitted rapid rotation of the images and was a forerunner of the latter-day penny arcade machines popular through this century. The stereopticon industry was but another example of the brothers’ sagacity in introducing products and processes popular in Europe, but not yet familiar in the United States. As early as 1854, Frederick explained, “Until now, all the stereoscopic glass pictures have been imported from France. As far as I am able to judge, the fault lies principally with our operating artists. They have not paid attention to the subject it richly deserves …. ” The following year he recruited Philadelphia businessmen and investors to sponsor him in a railroad excursion from Philadelphia to Niagara Falls, during which he would make stereoscopic views of the landscape. Twenty businessmen advertised this innovative endeavor in the Philadelphia Public Ledger in December 1855. He has been duly credited with popularizing railroad scenery with this series, which included a view of the recently completed suspension bridge at Niagara Falls.
Between his tour of South America and the railroad expedition, Frederick found time to capture, on May 26, 1854, an eclipse of the sun. The first attempt in Italy in 1842 to record a solar eclipse was not very successful, although John Whipple of Harvard College photographed a partial eclipse in 1851. Frederick Langenheim, in addition to six American photographers, succeeded in using the daguerreotype process in recording the scientific event in 1854.
In 1856, the year they published their stereopticon railroad series, the Langenheim brothers also issued a set of twenty-four stereographic proofs on salted paper entitled Views at Home and Abroad (which the Smithsonian Institution transferred to the Library of Congress for safekeeping ten years later). By 1858, however, daguerreotypes had lost their popularity, replaced by the ambrotype, followed by the ferrotype (“tintype”) and, finally, by the familiar and commercially successful paper photographs. Unlike previous years, not one daguerreotype was entered in the Franklin Institution’s annual exhibition for 1859. It appears that the brothers began concentrating on their stereopticon business, producing magic lantern slides for the next decade. They employed artists to draw comical and magical slides, and released a catalogue marketing their available slides. Over the years, the Langenheims encouraged others, even competitors, to make improvements in the field; Frederick is listed as a witness, in 1856, to a new stereoscope case made by William Lloyd. And Alexander Beckers, once an employee, in 1859 produced a special case capable of housing three hundred stereographs mounted on rotating blades.
The Langenheim brothers continued exerting considerable influence on the American photography market until William’s death at the age of sixty-seven in 1874. Upon William’s demise, Frederick retired and sold the stereopticon and magic lantern slide enterprises to Casper W. Briggs. Perhaps it was fitting that the business as conducted by Frederick and William Langenheim did not continue beyond the exciting – if not explosive – early years of photography. Not only did these German immigrants witness the formative years of American photography, but they actively participated in its growth and development, enabling the products of their labors to be shared with their contemporaries, as well as subsequent generations of scholars, historians and admirers. They were, in essence, pioneers and photographers.
That the brothers’ first cooperative effort in the United States was working for the Philadelphia newspaper, Die Alte und Neue Welt, or The Old and New World, seems prophetic today. Their role in photographic history served to introduce Old World scientific advances – such as talbotypes and the Niepce process – to the New World, thus preserving for posterity the unique nineteenth century perspective of the grand and, at times, bewildering landscape of their adopted country. As intellectually curious German natives and as astute Philadelphia businessmen, they bridged the two worlds to provide a unique graphic document of the art and science they helped to shape.
For Further Reading
Buckland, Gail and Cecil Beaton. The Magic Image: The Genius of Photography from 1839 to the Present Day. Boston: Little, Brown, 1975.
Darrah, William Culp. The World of Stereographs. Gettysburg: Darrah, 1977.
Finkel, Kenneth. Nineteenth-century Photography in Philadelphia: 250 Historic Prints from the Library Company of Philadelphia. New York: Dover Publications, 1980.
Gernsheim, Helmut and Alison Gernsheim. L.J.M. Daguerre: The History of the Diorama and the Daguerreotype. New York: Dover Publications, 1968.
Gilbert, George. Collecting Photographica: The Images and Equipment of the First Hundred Years of Photography. New York: Hawthorne Books, 1976.
Heyert, Elizabeth. The Glasshouse Years: Victorian Portrait Photography, 1839-1870. Montclair, N.J.: Allanheld E. Schram, 1979.
Macdonald, Gus. Camera: A Victorian Eyewitness; A History of Photography: 1826-1913. New York: Viking Press, 1980.
Newhall, Beaumont. The Daguerreotype in America. New York: New York Graphic Society, 1968.
Rinhart, Floyd and Marion Rinhart. American Daguerreian. New York: C. N. Potter, 1967.
Taft, Robert. Photography and the American Scene: A Social History, 1839-1889. New York: Dover Publications, 1964.
Ellen NicKenzie Lawson, a direct descendant of William Langenheim, earned her doctorate in American History from Case Western Reserve University, Ohio, in 1977, and received her master of arts in teaching from Wesleyan University, Connecticut. She was awarded her bachelor of arts degree in 1966 from Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania. Her articles have appeared in scholarly journals, including Journal of Civil War History, Journal of Negro Education and Dictionary of American Military Biography. She has written three books, The Three Sarahs: Documents of Antebellum Black College Women, Across the Stage – An Extra Clap and Cookies, Whales and Turtle Tales. The author, residing in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, is currently a freelance writer.