First Ever Photos Of Cities Around The World (13 Pics)

Jerusalem

The oldest photos of the city of Jerusalem were taken by French photographer Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey in 1844.

Houston, Texas (U.S.)

This 1856 shot of the 300 block of Main St. in Houston is the oldest known photograph in the city's Metropolitan Research Center archive.

London, England

The photo above dates back to the early 1840s and shows a well-known London view, looking from Gracechurch Street down Fish Street Hill towards the Monument. The photographer is thought to be either Antoine Claudet, a student of Daguerre (originator of the daguerreotype), or Richard Beard, who had the patent to undertake the process and had a studio near the Monument.

Boston, Massachusetts (U.S.)

This photograph of Boston is not only the earliest surviving photo of the city, but the world's first aerial photo captured from 2,000 feet above it.

San Francisco, California (U.S.)

The oldest known photo of San Francisco dates back to 1850 and shows hundreds of ships abandoned in the bay. The wood from the ships was used to plank the dirt roads that ran through the city at that time. Unfortunately, these wooden roads would become fuel for the six separate fires that ravaged San Francisco from 1849 until 1851.

Toronto, Ontario (Canada)

In 1856, a photographer standing on the roof of a hotel at King St W., and York St. in Toronto captured what might be the first photograph of the city. The City of Toronto Archives believes the shot might have been used to pitch Toronto to the British Colonial Office as the future capital of Canada (which obviously didn't work, despite it being a decent photo).

Tokyo, Japan

An Italian-British photographer, Felice Beato, took this panorama photo of Tokyo in either 1865 or 1866 when it was known as Edo.

Chicago, Illinois (U.S.)

Alexander Hesler is best remembered for photographing a beardless Abraham Lincoln, but he also took this 1855 daguerreotype of the Cook County Court House and City Hall, now the oldest known image of the city of Chicago. The building, which "stood in the center of the block bounded by Randolph, Clark, Washington and LaSalle streets," was destroyed in the Chicago fire of 1871.

New York (U.S.)

Manhattan was not always the concrete jungle we know and love today—this half-plate daguerreotype, identified on the back as on "the main road called a continuation of Broadway," was taken in what is now the Upper West Side in 1848.

The photo shows a farmhouse sitting at the top of a rise while Broadway, then an unpaved track, runs below. The road was likely Bloomingdale Road which became Broadway in 1899.

Sydney, Australia

Photographer Robert Hunt shot some of the first photos of Sydney. This stereograph of St. James Parsonage on Macquarie St. was taken in 1855 from the Mint Building, itself the oldest public building in the Sydney Central Business District (built 1811).

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (U.S.)

This 1839 daguerreotype shot by Joseph Saxton is not only the oldest photo of the city of Philadelphia but the earliest surviving image made in the United States. It shows Central High School at Walnut and Juniper sitting next to the Philadelphia Armory, taken from what was the U.S. Mint at the time, where Saxton worked. His "camera" was composed primarily of a lens and a cigar box.

Los Angeles, California (U.S.)

The above photo of Los Angeles looking toward what is now downtown was shot in approximately 1860.

The Plaza Church, constructed in 1822 (and pretty much the only building in the photo still standing today), appears in the bottom-left. of the shot.

Paris, France

The photo of the Boulevard du Temple in Paris dates back to 1838 and was taken by Louis Daguerre (inventor of the daguerreotype process of photography) himself.

The man in the lower left corner stood still long enough to leave an image and is now known as the first human ever photographed.