Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Boston 1860: the Oldest Surviving Aerial Photograph

According to the Smithsonian, this photograph of Boston in 1860, shot from a balloon, is the oldest surviving aerial photograph. It was taken by James Wallace Black. Black was the first American to take aerial photos, but French photographer Nadar had done the same thing in Paris two years before.
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1 comment:

G. Verloren said...

For some reason, reading the phrase "According to the Smithsonian..." made it sound in my head like no one else agrees with them.

Which raises a question - what's the Smithsonian's reputation outside of the US? I've never really thought about it, but does the rest of the world hold them in the same regard that Americans tend to? Do people in Europe think about the Smithsonian the same way people in the US think about museums such as the Tate, the Gugenheim, the Hermitage, the Louvre, the Uffizi, et cetera?

June 22, 2016 at 11:21 AM

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