The Earliest Born Person Ever Photographed

Photography was invented in the early 19th century, leaving us with only paintings of history up until that point. But some of the first people to be photographed were around 100 years old, and lived through pivotal events of the previous century like the American Revolution. In this video I talk about a selection of these people, and what they experienced over the course of their long lives.

→ MUSIC

Concerto grosso in C minor, Op.1 No.2 - Pietro Locatelli

Keyboard Sonata in A major, K.208 - Domenico Scarlatti

Piano Sonata in B minor, Hob. XVI:32 - II. Menuetto - Franz Joseph Haydn

Hob. XVI. 6 - III. Adagio - Franz Joseph Haydn

Trio III in G Major for Flute, Violin, Cello and Harpsichord - III. Largo - Georg Philipp Telemann

→ SOURCES

[kingsandthings]

There are a lot of uncertainties and contradictory information about these people, so take what I said here with a grain of salt. For example I nearly included Joseph Souberbielle, a surgeon who played a part in the French revolution, before realizing that the man in the photo had probably been erroneously identified as him. He was a close friend of Robespierre and was charged with keeping Marie Antoinette alive for the duration of her trial. Apparently he started every day by singing a verse of the Marseillaise instead of saying a morning prayer.

I also forgot to say that Conrad Heyer is listed by some sources to have been born in 1753, not 1749. He is also claimed to have once been a bodyguard of George Washington.

[horrortackleharry]

When I was a kid in the 1970s, there was a very old man who came into my dad's shop for a cup of tea now and again; he told us that when he was a little boy like me, he spoke to an old man who had fought against Napoleon at Waterloo.

[amdkhl]

I have a photo of my great-great-great grandmother who was born in 1790 in Isimir Turkey during the Ottoman Empire and she died at the age of 94 in 1884. She was a Greek Christian who fled persecution to Alexandria in Egypt, married a French soldier in Napoleon’s army and started our family roots in the Middle East. Sadly the family left Egypt during the Nasser revolution in the 1960s…The photograph I have of her is when she was around 90 years old and she wrote on the back in her own beautiful handwriting “Old in appearance, young in spirit”…wish I could’ve known her.

[toddw]

Its absolutely incredible to see a photograph of someone born in the early 1700s, who also would've lived amongst people born in the mid-late 1600s.

[recognizesealand]

Just to be clear the 1850s may seem insanely long ago, but there where people born around then who saw sputnik.

[almonteGuy]

This is so good, and a reminder of something I tell my kids often: "The past wasn't so long ago." I'm 67 and I have clear memories of my great-grandmother, who was born in 1875. She, in turn, told me stories about a great-uncle she knew as a child, who was born in 1793. So I knew someone who knew someone who lived in the 18th century. That makes it seem a lot closer in time, somehow.

[kevinchambers]

My godmother as a child saw queen Victoria. That always made me understand how close the past history is to our own lives.

[joesmalley]

I have a photograph of my Great-Great-Great Father in Law born in 1796. My Great-great-great grandad jumped on a ship to Sweden to escape the second Danish-Prussian war in 1864, got married, bumped into a Polish photographer and started a new career. Always felt very lucky to have photographs from so long ago.

[feraudyh]

Back around 1977 I had a friend who met someone who was so old that he danced with someone who had danced with Marie-Antoinette.

[rovhalt]

Basically we're looking into the eyes of men who met people born in the 1600's.

[sarapatrick]

I remember my grandma telling me about the first time she spoke on a telephone. She was 19 years old and it was a phone in town she remembered being so in awe that you could hear someone’s voice in real time when they aren’t near you.

[patriley]

If you have old or elderly people in your family, it is a good idea to speak to them about the old days when they were young. I am 72 years old now and wish I had talked to my parents and especially my grandparents about their lives when they were younger. My grandfather was born in 1897 and served in WWI. Although he died before I was born, I am sure that my father could have told me about him if only I had asked. I intend to write a little life history about myself so that my 9 grandchildren and 2 great-grand-children will have something of me when I am gone. Thanks for a very interesting video.

[barabi]

My dad, who was born exactly 60 years after Abraham Lincoln was shot (April 14) has told me that his grandmother remembered that day. She was just a little girl but hearing the news and seeing the people weeping made an impression on her.

[JackReynolds-wg]

When you think of someone born in the
1730's you don't really think of them as people like you and me, but they were.
When looking into the face and eyes of
an actual photograph of someone really
from such another time, I can't help but wonder, - just what has this person actually seen ? It's like history itself has come alive again.

[dragonsbreath]

I enlisted in the Marines in 1987. It was some time in 1988 that I remember reading a news article that the last surviving veteran of the Spanish-American War passed away.

[MarkRyanSchulz]

The oldest ancestor I have a photograph of was born in around 1791 (Johanna Eleonore Ulrich d. 1888), photographed in around 1859 with her younger husband, sons, and daughters, and I thought that was pretty long ago!

[sergpie]

Such a fascinating video! I’ve got a photo of my great-great-grandfather from just a few years after the Papal States were disbanded in 1870; he still has the Phrygian-looking hat and ethnic garb that Italians would wear before the great internal migrations of the country and its subsequent modernization and westernization.

[hejnersge]

I am from Germany and have a favorite ancestor who lived from 1698-1782. When I think that these people were born here around 1750 and could have known and seen my great-grandfather of seven generation, I get goosebumps.

[philipprichardt]

There was a radio show in Germany back in the 1970ies. There was and elderly woman requesting a song from her youth. She recalled having met her grandfather who served as a hussar in Waterloo under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte.

[LinkRocks]

How interesting! Thank you for giving a detailed background of these people. Seeing someone who lived in the 1700s in the flesh via photograph is amazing.