Daguerre, Louis-Jacques-MandÉ

Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, lithograph. [Credit: Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.]

18, 1787, Cormeilles, France—died July 10, 1851, Bry-sur-Marne) French inventor. Initially a scene painter for the opera, in 1822 he opened the Diorama, an exhibition of views with effects induced by changes in lighting. In 1826 Nicéphore Niépce learned of Daguerre's experiments in obtaining permanent pictures by the action of sunlight, and the two became partners in the development of Niépce's heliographic process until Niépce's death in 1833. Continuing to experiment, Daguerre discovered that exposing an iodized silver plate in a camera creates a lasting image if the latent image on the plate is developed and fixed. In 1839 a description of his daguerreotype process was announced at the Academy of Sciences.