Daguerreotype

A daguerreotype is like taking a picture with a very fancy camera that was invented a really long time ago.

First, you have to sit very still and not move at all for a long time, like a minute or two. Then, the fancy camera would take a picture of what you were sitting in front of.

But instead of saving the picture on a memory card or computer like we do today, the picture would be "printed" onto a shiny piece of metal.

This shiny piece of metal would show a detailed and clear image of whatever was in front of the camera.

People used to love daguerreotypes because they were the first photographs ever made and they were very special, but they were also very expensive and not many people could afford them.