An officer in undress with shell jacket and peaked forage cap, 99th (Lanarkshire) Regiment of Foot, 1850 (c)

Daguerreotype photograph, 1850 (c).

Named after inventor, Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre, Daguerrotypes consisted of images on a silvered copper plate, rather than paper or glass as with photographs. Since the metal plate was vulnerable, most daguerreotypes were housed in a special frame like this example. The daguerreotype was invented in 1840 and was the first commercially successful photographic process.