Daguerreotype process a gift, free to the world

On 19^th August 1839, it was announced by the French government that, Daguerreotype, a photography process developed by Louis Daguerre would be a gift “free to the world”. Daguerre was a French artist regarded as one of the fathers of photography. His collaboration with Nicéphore Niépce, an inventor who had produced the oldest surviving camera photograph, resulted in the Daguerreotype.