Daguerreotype of a group of men, possibly actors associated with the Adelaide stage.

Developed in 1839 by Louis-Jacques-Mande Daguerre and given to the world by the French government, the Daguerreotype was the first photographic method of capturing a scene or a likeness.

Despite the difficulty and expense of the Daguerreotype, the process spread rapidly around the world, being first demonstrated in Sydney in 1842 and Adelaide in 1845.

Artist ST Gill was one of the earliest practitioners of daguerreotype photography in South Australia, a report in the South Australian Register 8 November 1845 recording the arrival of his Daguerreotype in the colony.

• Barger, M. Susan. The daguerreotype: nineteenth-century technology and modern science / M. Susan Barger and William B. White. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, c1991
• Cato, Jack The story of the camera in Australia Melbourne: Georgian House, 1955
• Noye, Robert J. (Robert James) Welcome to Photohistory SA [electronic resource]: a web site dedicated to the history of South Australian photography from 1845 to around 1915 [S.Aust.]: R.J. Noye, c1998
• Richter, Stefan The art of the daguerreotype London: Viking, 1989
• Robinson, J. A century in focus: South Australian photography, 1840s-1940s Adelaide: Art Gallery of South Australia, 2007, pp.30-31

• America's first look into the camera: Daguerreotype portraits and views 1839-1864
• Daguerreotypes [Getty Museum]
• Helios online photo collections: Secrets of the dark chamber: Art of the American Daguerreotype [Smithsonian American Art Museum]
• The making of a Daguerreotype: http://www.ccsd.ca/charlotte/dagazine/mi/exhibit/brochure.htm
• Photohistory SASee: Daguerreotypes
• Treasures from the world's great libraries: Science & inventions: Daguerreotype Portrait of Dr William Bland [National Library of Australia]