Les merveilles de la photographie 1874

This is the cover of a book called "The Wonders of Photography" by Gaston Tissandier, published in France as part of a series called "The Library of Wonders". The symbolic representation of photography on the cover is fascinating. On top of a globe, we see a winged lion looking at an angel who holds what looks like a crown or a lamp above. In the nineteenth century, photography was indeed considered a wonder. The imagery of the cover suggests a world of marvels and the taming of light. The French title indicates that the book was intended for a wide audience keen to understand new technologies. Consider the political context of the time. France was going through industrial and social change. The very idea of a library of wonders suggests the positivist spirit of the 19th century, the sense that the modern world could be mastered by rational understanding and cataloged in an encyclopedic fashion. By examining publishing records, personal letters of the author, and the cultural debates of the time, we can better understand what this "wonder" really meant to people then.