Daguerreotype
Invented by Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre and introduced worldwide in 1839, daguerreotype was almost completely superseded by 1860 with new, less expensive processes yielding more readily viewable images. In the late 20th century, there was a revival of daguerreotypy by a small number of photographers interested in making artistic use of early photographic processes.
Frederick Langenheim
Langenheim and his brother William began working in 1840 for a German language newspaper edited by George Francis Schreiber in Philadelphia. Langenheim acquired a daguerreotype camera in 1841 from Von Voigtlander and formed a partnership with Schreiber in a photographic studio business for a couple of years. In 1843 Langenheim went into the photography studio business with his brother at 26–27 Exchange Street in Philadelphia. It was the "W. & F. Langenheim" firm and known as the Philadelphia daguerrotype establishment. They made in 1842 the first advertising picture in history. It was of patrons eating and drinking in the restaurant in the Philadelphia Exchange Building. The picture of people dining was hung in the hall of the building to attract potential customers for the dining room.
In 1845, Langenheim took the first set of panoramic pictures of Niagara Falls ever photographed. The panoramic set of five adjacent scenes were placed in panels in a display frame. The daguerreotype pictures were the first of Niagara Falls according to photo historian Robert Taft (1894-1955). They were the first such pictures to gain world fame. There were eight sets of copies made. A set was sent to Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre and five crowned heads of Europe, Queen Victoria, and one each to the reigning rulers of Brunswick, Prussia, Saxony, and Wurttemberg. The seventh set was given to United States president James Knox Polk. The eighth set was retained by the Langenheim brothers.