1851Reputable sourceWell documented
The Wet Plate and the Spread of Photography
On the timeline · around 1851 ·
What happened
In 1851 Frederick Scott Archer introduced the wet-collodion process, which coated a glass plate with light-sensitive chemicals to make a sharp negative. Faster and cheaper than what came before, it dominated photography for thirty years, filling the world with portraits and making possible the first great war and documentary photography.
Why it matters
The wet plate turned photography from an expensive novelty into a booming trade. Portrait studios sprang up everywhere, and photographers carried their darkrooms to battlefields and distant lands, giving the public its first photographic view of war and the wider world.