Saturday (Valentine's day) was the anniverssary of Matthew Brady taking the first photograph of an American President, James Polk, in office. This was a Daguerrotype, an early form of photography done on metal plates. An interesting timeline of the development of photography is available here

This was around the era of the American Civil War, there are some amazing pictures at the Library of congress site The sheer horrow of the slaughter seems magnified by the age and decay of the photographs.