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Frederick Langenheim

Frederick Langenheim (1809 - 1879) was born in Brunswick (Braunschweig), in Westphalia, Germany. In 1840 Langenheim moved to Philadelphia in the USA. There, in 1841, Langenheim started a daguerreotype studio.

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In 1848 Langenheim paid Fox Talbot six thousand dollars for the patent of printing photographs on paper. He failed to make a good use of it, however.

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In 1851 Langenheim participated in the Great Exhibition in London where he demonstrated magic lantern photographic slides on glass, the technique he patented in the US in 1850.

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In 1854 Langenheim started producing stereoscopic photographs on glass. In 1855 he announced his "New Series of American Stereoscopic Views" which presented views "between Philadelphia and Niagara Falls". These views were first published on glass (and colored), and then on paper. The paper views were also sold as a book. The views were taken by Langenheim during a trip to Niagara falls in 1855 where he traveled through Reading, Catawissa, Williamsport and by Elmira Railroad. At the same time Langenheim took some views near Pottsville on the Mine Hill Railroad. This series was initially distributed exclusively by William Lloyd, a publisher in Philadelphia, with whom Langenheim established a joint company by the fall of 1856 and which later (surely by February 1857) got the name "The American Stereoscopic Company".

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On October 4th, 1859 the partners dissolved the company and went on to do business n their own.

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Later, Langenheim would also distributed the photos of other makers (e.g. Claude-Marie Ferrier, Clouzard et Soulier, etc.).

Frederick Langenheim, American stereoview photographer and publisher
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