Daguerreotypes

The aim of this research is to identify and analyse the specificities of daguerreotype production in Rio de Janeiro between 1840 and 1850. The daguerreotype was the first photographic process recognised and patented by the French government in August 1839. In Brazil it was presented in January 1840 by Abbot Louis Compte in the city of Rio de Janeiro in the presence of the future Emperor Pedro II. To carry out this research we used as documents the adverts of daguerreotypists in the newspapers of the period circulating in the court and the manual on how to produce daguerreotypes. Based on the information contained in the advertisements we established categories in order to systematise the data. In this way it was possible to compare the general information on daguerreotype production and the particularities presented by the photographers relating the data and making it possible to map the process of knowledge in this period.