This is the oldest identified {photograph} taken in Colorado. The story behind it’s fascinating

Colorado marks its one hundred and fiftieth birthday this Saturday, Aug. 1.

Experts at History Colorado have been pondering for some time of various methods to assist commemorate the occasion. One concept was to trace down the earliest identified {photograph} of Colorado.

And what they uncovered is hanging: It’s a daguerreotype from 1853, taken throughout an expedition throughout the West greater than 20 years earlier than Colorado grew to become a state in1876.

The picture depicts a Cheyenne village with two folks dealing with the digital camera, close to what’s now Lamar, Colo.

For the curators at History Colorado, the picture additionally revealed the fascinating story of the photographer – a person named Solomon Nunes Carvalho, who traveled the West with a cumbersome digital camera and captured some of the earliest photos of the area.

Erin O’Toole spoke final fall with Sam Bock, History Colorado’s director of Interpretations and Publications, to be taught extra in regards to the seek for the oldest picture and what it tells us about Colorado’s early historical past.

With Colorado’s 150th just a few days away, that is the primary of a number of conversations in regards to the state’s historical past we’ll reshare within the days forward.