Photographic Fusions and the Mass Marketing of Photography: The Langenheim Brothers at Niagara Falls

Much of the credit or blame for developing mass-marketable forms of photographs in the United States should go to the Langenheim brothers, Frederick and William, of Philadelphia. Between 1845 and 1860 they introduced a string of innovations that resulted in landscape stereographs becoming the first variety of photographs to achieve mass distribution. The story of that accomplishment constitutes an important chapter in the development of a mass market in the U. S. for pictures in the broadest sense.A talk Visual Arts, Culture, and Media Lecture Series talk by Michael Leja, James and Nan Wagner Farquhar Professor of History of Art, Chair, History of Art Department, University of Pennsylvania. Sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts, the School of Communication, the School of Photographic Arts and Sciences, the School of Individualized Study, and the William A. Kern Chair in Communications.