Overview: This exhibit of books and publications focused on the birth of the photographic process. Items on view ranged from early pre-photographic experiments with the camera obscura to Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre's original 1839 publication in which he describes his process, early descriptions of William Henry Fox Talbot's "sun pictures" (now referred to as calotypes), and the first publications to feature photographic illustrations.

Organization: The exhibition was organized by the National Gallery of Art. Neal Turtell, executive librarian, and Sarah Greenough, senior curator and head of the department of photographs, were cocurators.