Conrad Heyer (1749–1856) was an American farmer and veteran of the Revolutionary War who is notable for possibly being the earliest-born person known to have been photographed.

Moderators: wdolson, MOD_War-in-the-Pacific-Admirals-Edition

He looks very uncomfortable in that outfit - maybe had to borrow it.ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn
Conrad Heyer (1749–1856) was an American farmer and veteran of the Revolutionary War who is notable for possibly being the earliest-born person known to have been photographed.
![]()
ORIGINAL: BBfanboy
He looks very uncomfortable in that outfit - maybe had to borrow it.ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn
Conrad Heyer (1749–1856) was an American farmer and veteran of the Revolutionary War who is notable for possibly being the earliest-born person known to have been photographed.
1749-1856 = about 107 years old!?? [X(] Did you notice when the picture was taken?
![]()
He also looks like a guy you don't wont to mess with!
Heck yah! "Sonny, I've brought down nations."

Given his living in Maine it is doubtful, but I know nothing of the whole course of his life/where he lived.ORIGINAL: Orm
I ponder on two things. First, was he a slave owner? Secondly, does anyone really believe his claimed age at the time of the photo?
He looks much better than any confirmed centenarian I recall seeing in photos or video. I know his claim is possible but believing it requires more, as I think you imply.ORIGINAL: Orm
Indeed. And I doubt that claim. It is interesting that the other people who claimed to have been even older apparently are disbelieved but not him. I wonder why that is. I also find it interesting that the dispute is that other men claim to have been born before him. I suspect that there were others photographed at the same time and that they in fact may have been older.
In short. I do not believe that he was 103 years old at the time of the photography.
Cut from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conrad_Heyer#Photography
In 1852, at the age of 103, Heyer posed for a daguerreotype portrait. He thereby became the earliest-born person of whom a photograph is known to exist. The claim is not without dispute, as the following men were also photographed: a shoemaker named John Adams, who claimed to be born in 1745; a Revolutionary war veteran named Baltus Stone, with a claim of 1744; and a slave named Caesar, with a claim of 1738
Nice - but I suspect he was trying to save the image of the young lady changing in the bedroom of the building opposite!ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn
The earliest photo of a UNKNOWN person...
"This is one of the, if not the, oldest known photograph of a human being in existence. It depends on how one defines photograph, but this was taken by Louis Jacques-Mande Daguerre in 1838.
(The fellow the daguerreotype was named after.) This is a photo of the Boulevard du Temple in Paris. This is a busy street and there was tons of traffic, but since the exposure was so long, about 15-20 minutes, none of the moving figures can be seen. The only people visible are a guy getting his boots polished and the bootblack.
Who was this nameless gentleman or the bootblack? No one knows. I’m sure they never imagined that they had been immortalized, albeit anonymously, by a clever scientist testing his newly discovered method of preserving moments in time."
![]()




