Daguerreotype

This early Daguerreotype was produced in 1842 – the year Darwin and his family replaced the clamour of London with the calm of Down. It shows Charles with his first child, William Erasmus. Demonstrating his affectionate nature, it is the only known image of Charles with one of his children when they were young. Daguerrotypes were some of the first widely produced forms of photographs and were popular from the 1840s