#27: The First Selfie
Most of us assume that selfies are a modern invention. Well, Robert Cornelius is here to change your mind. Robert took this photo of himself in 1839 while working at his family’s photography studio. Many historians consider it to be the first selfie, even if Robert wouldn’t have called it that.
Robert took this photo one day while he was bored at the studio. Photographs were a much bigger production back then. In order to take this photo, he had to sit still for a few minutes. Otherwise, he would have come out completely blurry. Robert’s early selfie just goes to show that we’ve always been obsessed with self-portraits. We just call them by a different name now.