The First “Selfie” In Historical past Taken by way of Robert Cornelius, a Philadelphia Chemist, in 1839

In 2013, the Oxford Dic­tio­nar­ies introduced that “self­ie” were deemed their Phrase of The 12 months. The time period, whose first report­ed use as an Insta­gram hash­tag took place on Jan­u­ary 27, 2011, was once actu­al­ly invent­ed in 2002, when an Aus­tralian chap publish­ed a pic­ture of him­self on an inter­web discussion board and known as it a “self­ie”. Whilst gadgets for tak­ing pho­tos of 1­self were avail­ready for a few years pri­or to the professional­lif­er­a­tion of the good­telephones respon­si­ble for this phe­nom­e­non, the his­to­ry of the self­ie dates again to the ori­gins of pho­tog­ra­phy itself.

Because the Pub­lic Area Overview notes, the primary report­ed example of the self­ie harkens again to what can have been the primary pho­to­graph­ic por­trait. In 1839, a tender Philadel­phia chemist named Robert Cor­nelius stepped out of his circle of relatives’s retailer and took a pho­to­graph of him­self:

He took the picture by way of remov­ing the lens cap after which run­ning [into the] body the place he sat for a minute earlier than cov­er­ing up the lens once more. At the again he wrote “The dawn Pic­ture ever tak­en. 1839.”

Cor­nelius’ strik­ing self-por­trait was once, appar­ent­ly, indica­tive of his knack for pho­tog­ra­phy; an access in Godey’s Woman’s Guide from 1840 reads:

… As a Daguerreo­typ­ist his spec­i­mens are the most productive that experience but been observed on this coun­check out, and we discuss this with a complete knowl­fringe of the spec­i­mens proven right here by way of Mr. Gouraud, pur­port­ing to be, and surely tru­ly, by way of Daguerre him­self. We now have observed many spec­i­mens by way of younger Cor­nelius, and we professional­nounce them unsurpassable—they will have to be observed to be appre­ci­at­ed.

As a last con­so­l. a.­to­ry notice to these lin­guis­tic stal­warts whose blood boils at this little bit of Aus­tralian slang input­ing the lex­i­con, don’t have any concern—the Oxford Dic­tio­nar­ies On-line could be very, very dif­fer­ent than the Oxford Eng­lish Dic­tio­nary.

by the use of The Pub­lic Area Overview

Relat­ed Con­tent:

The First Pho­to­graph Ever Tak­en (1826)

Behold the Very First Col­or Pho­to­graph (1861): Tak­en by way of Scot­tish Physi­cist (and Poet!) James Clerk Maxwell

See the First Pho­to­graph of a Human Being: A Pho­to Tak­en by way of Louis Daguerre (1838)

Ilia Blin­d­er­guy is a Mon­tre­al-based cul­ture and sci­ence author. Fol­low him at @iliablinderman.