[Inscription on Monument's front, 1890]:
DAGUERRE
[Inscription on 1890 monument's south side]:
To commemorate the half century in photography 1839 - 1889. Erected by the photographers association of America Aug. 1890.
[Inscription on 1890 monument's north side]:
Photography, the electric telegraph, and the steam engine are the three great discoveries of the age. No five centuries in human progress can show such strides as these.
[Rededication Marker, 1989]:
The Daguerre Monument.
The French artist Louis Mande Daguerre (1787-1851) became interested in the 1820s in trying to capture images photographically. In August 1839 his "Daguerreotype" technique—fixing an image on a light-sensitive, polished silver plate—was announced to the public. This was the first photographic process to be used widely in Europe and the United States.
In 1890 the Professional Photographers of America donated this monument to Daguerre, by the American sculptor Jonathan Scott Hartley, to the American people. The bronze figure was cast by the Henry-Bonnard Bronze Company of New York. Placed in the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum Building (now known as the Arts and Industries Building) to celebrate the first half-century of photography, the monument was displayed on the Mall from 1897 to 1969.
The rededication of the Daguerre Monument in 1989 was sponsored by the Professional Photographers of America in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of photography.
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