William and Frederick Langenheim: Eclipse of the Sun (1854)

On May 26, 1854, William and Frederick Langenheim took the first photographs of a total eclipse of the sun visible in North America. (Other photographers did take pictures, but the Langenheims’ are the only that survive.) The images are reversed due to the daguerreotype process—in the northern hemisphere, the moon actually covers the sun from right to left.