Mathew Brady publishes a collection entitled A Gallery of Illustrious Americans.

Albumen printing paper is introduced by L. D. Blanquart-Evrard.

Frederick Scott Archer publishes wet-Collodion process which requires less exposure time, is more detailed, and more difficult to handle than the Calotype process.

First instantaneous photographs by means of electric spark illumination are created by William Henry Fox Talbot.

The first lenses and microscopes are introduced onto the market by Carl Kellner.

William Henry Fox Talbot patents photoglyphic engraving which produces printable steel plates.

Commodore Perry's naval squadron arrives in Japan. The official photographer, Eliphalet Brown, Jr. (1816-1886) takes hundreds of daguerreotype photos of people and scenics in Shimoda and Hakodate.

Russian photographer Captain Aleksander Mozhaiskii arrives in Japan after Commordore Perry leaves. He took daguerreotype photos in Japan. One of the images is preserved at Gyokusenji Temple in Shimoda, Shizuoka Pref.

A.-A.-E. Disdéri patents carte-de-viste portraiture.

George Eastman is born on July 12, 1854, in Marshall, NY.

Ambrotype, a positive Collodion image, is patented in US.

Ferrotype process (tintypes) is introduced to US.

After the death of Carl Kellner, his widow continues the optical business with twelve employees.

Photojournalism of Crimean War documented by Roger Fenton, James Robertson, and Carol Popp de Scathmari.

John Dillwyn Llewelyn invents the Oxymel process, a variation on the Collodion process.

American consul Townsend Harris and Dutch interpreter Henry Heusken arrive in Japan. Heusken teaches basic photography to Shimooka Renjo in Shimoda.

Photographer Oscar Rejlander, in Britain, creates allegorical multiphoto compositions.

Henry Peach Robinson's photo Fading Away, begins chronicling the Victorian scene with multiple negative compositions of a life near death.

American Consul Townsend Harris succeeds in obtaining a new treaty with Japan for trade at Hakodate, Yokohama, and Nagasaki. Other countries also conclude treaties with Japan, opening the country to foreigners from July 1859.

Francis Frith photographs scenes from Upper Egypt and Ethiopia.

American Orrin E. Freeman becomes the first person to engage in professional studio photography in Yokohama.

Sutton panoramic camera is patented.

Nadar (Gaspard F. Tournachon) photographs Paris from a balloon.

Abraham Lincoln is photographed during his first presidential campaign by Mathew Brady then later elected the 16th president of the U.S.

Julia Margaret Cameron is known for her lyrical portraits of Victorian men and women.

Chambre Automatique de Bertsch; first sub-miniature camera.

In Paris, Francois Willeme opens a photosculpture studio.

Popular stereoscope viewer invented by Oliver Wendell Holmes.

James Clerk Maxwell's On the Theory of the Three Primary Colours. James Clerk Maxwell uses three black and white photographs, each was photographed through a red, green or blue filter, to create a color image.

U.S. Civil War

The Civil War is documented by Mathew Brady, Alexander Gardner, and others.

Ueno Hikoma (1838-1904, son of Ueno Shunnojo Tsunetari), learns photography and chemistry from Dr. Pompe van Meerdervoort, publishes the treastise: Seimikyoku Hikkei, which described photographic techniques and the wet collodian process.

Yokohama resident William Saunders, an Englishman, takes a number of photographs during a three-month stay from Aug. 1862. He goes to Shanghai, China and becomes famous for Chinese photography.

Shimooka Renjo (1823-1914) opens a photo studio in Yokohama after learning photography from "Unshin," thought to be Captain John Wilson, an American who sold his equipment to Shimooka upon leaving Japan.

Charles Parker arrives in Japan, operates a studio in Yokohama, and stays until about 1868. Only a few of his photographs survive today.

Italian photographer, Felice Beato, comes to Yokohama and stays for 21 years. A substantial amount of his work survives. He hand-colored his portraits making this practice popular.

Alexander Gardner writes The Sharpshooter, taken after the Battle of Gettysburg.

Julia Margaret Cameron begins to photograph soft and impressionistic portraits that challenge the accepted ideas of focus.

In Japan, Kizu Kokichi opens a photo studio in Hakodate which was one of the ports which were opened to foreigners.

The Dubroni-In-Camera processing. The plates were sensitized, developed, and fixed within the camera inside a glass bottle that was part of the camera body.

Japanese superstitions that having your photograph taken would bring death or illness are dispelled and more Japanese start to have their portraits taken. Whereas before Japanese photographers mostly served the needs of foreigners.

Abraham Lincoln is assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. The conspirators to Lincoln's death are executed.

The precision mechanic Ernst Leitz becomes a partner in Mrs. Carl Kellner's optical company.

Carleton Watkins photographs Yosemite Valley.

The Woodburytype process is patented.

Ducas de Hauron writings propose a variety of methods for color photography.

Many samurai, prior to the Meiji Restoration, have their photograph taken before what they think will be their death in battle. Japan's capital is moved from Kyoto to Tokyo and a tourist boom begins that lasts 50 years. The rickshaw is invented.

A Golden Spike for the Transcontinental Railway by Andrew J. Russell.

Louis Ducos du Hauron's Colors in Photography describes the principle of color photography.

Ernst Leitz takes over the sole management of Mrs. Carl Kellner's company and expands it under his name.

The number of professional photographers in Japan exceed 100. Also, in Japan, the use of albumen paper starts to become popular and the rickshaw becomes popular.

Richard Leach Maddox invents the gelatin dry plate silver bromide process.

William Henry Jackson photographs Yellowstone.

During the Siege of Paris, pigeons are used to carry microphotographed messages across enemy lines.

Timothy O'Sullivan pioneers landscape photography of the American West.

In Japan, for the first time an Emperor and Empress, Meiji, is photographed. Photographed by Uchida Kuichi (1844-1875).

John W. Hyatt begins manufacturing celluloid.

Japanese company Konishi-ya (early Konica) is established in Kojimachi, Tokyo.

Hermann Wilhelm Vogel increases the spectral sensitivity of photographic emulsions by adding dyes.

First photo is reproduced by the halftone method.

Asakura Matsugoro is sent to Austria by the Japanese government to study the manufacturing of optics.

Emperor Meiji cuts off his top-knot hair form and adopts a Western hairstyle. By 1890, the top-knot becomes rare Japan. Men's clothing also begins to Westernize, with Western hats and umbrellas (combined with the kimono). Eventually women are permitted to follow more Western styles.

Léon Vidal combines chromolithography with Woodburytype printing.