�Daguerre and Niepce de Saint Victor�, c 1851.

FRANCE - JUNE 19: Chromolithograph by Chereau showing Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre and the nephew of Joseph Niepce, Claude-Felix-Abel Niepce de Saint-Victor. Daguerre (1787-1851), French physicist and photography pioneer, collaborated on his original photography research with Joseph Niepce (1765-1833). The daguerreotype process, the first widespread and practical photographic process, was announced to the French Academy of Sciences on 9 January 1839. The process comprises a copper plate with a highly polished silver surface sensitized by iodine fumes, exposed in a camera, and developed by fuming over warmed mercury, producing a reversed and unique image. (Photo by SSPL/Getty Images)