These amazing photographs of elderly New Yorkers are believed to be some of the earliest people ever photographed — many of them were born in the 1700s.
Some of the pictures, thought to have been captured in the 1840s, were taken by legendary American Civil War photographer Mathew Brady who had a studio in the Big Apple.
Despite having the honor of being among the oldest generation ever captured on camera, many of the sitters appear grouchy.
Although, back in the mid 19th-century, exposure times were long meaning subjects had to sometimes hold still for minutes, making smiling difficult.
Also, some would have had an arduous life. Among the subjects are people who would have fought in the American Revolutionary War which took place between 1775 and 1783 and life was more difficult 200 years ago.
Garments long gone out of fashion, such as top hats, bonnets, and neckerchiefs festoon the New Yorkers who were born in the 18th-century.
Although the photographs lack details such as names, many of them are daguerrotypes, and are believed to be Brady’s.
Who Was Mathew Brady?
Born in 1823 to immigrant Irish farmers in Warren County, Brady left the countryside for New York around 1840 and taught himself daguerreotype photography.
Brady opened his own photography studio to produce portraits. After five years, Brady moved to Washington D.C .
and began daguerreotype photography.
When the Civil War started, his use of a mobile studio and darkroom enabled vivid battlefield photographs that brought home the reality of war to the public.
Brady invested over $100,000 to create over 10,000 plates of the war. He had anticipated that the government would buy the master copies of his photos from events like the First Battle of Bull Run. Brady suffered a sharp decline in his fortunes after it didn’t happen.
It seems that Brady underestimated how willing the public was to let go of the horrors of war. He had to close his New York City studio.
He died penniless in the charity ward of Presbyterian Hospital in 1896.
