ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the ways historians have dealt with the "legacy" of the four men who are believed to be photography's chief inventors. It looks specifically at the reasons for the historiographical treatment of Daguerre, who has generally been treated more unfavorably than his rivals. Daguerre was initially regarded as the principal inventor of photography. The early historians of photography, Josef Maria Eder and Erich Stenger, were also disinclined to favor Daguerre, as they were busy trying to prove that photography owed more to Germany than to France or England. Photography's historiography has often dealt with the invention of photography as a struggle between two very different characters. Specifically, the "antithesis" between Daguerre and William Henry Fox Talbot has become a very compelling narrative. Daguerre, on the other hand, was of humble descent, had worked hard to make something of him and was driven to achieve worldly fame.
