Minox Wetzlar Model III Spy Camera, c. 1960, PhotoMuse Collection, 2014, Donation of Dr. Unni Krishnan Pulikkal, Source – Herbert Ascherman Collection.

The Minox subminiature camera, in its various models, was for years the world’s most widely used spy camera. The ultra-light aluminum shell Minox A/III was produced from 1954 until 1962. Because of its small size (82 x 28 x 16 mm), it was easy to conceal and operate in one hand. It could take excellent…

Holmes Stereoscope, 1850, PhotoMuse Collection, 2014, Gift of Dr. Unni Krishnan Pulikkal, Source – Herbert Ascherman Collection.

The stereoscope, which dates from the 1850s, consisted of two prismatic lenses and a wooden stand to hold the stereo card. This type of stereoscope remained in production for a century and there are still companies making them in limited production currently. A stereoscope is a device for viewing a stereoscopic pair of separate images,…

Portrait of American Boys, c.1850, Daguerreotype, 70×55 mm, Unknown Photographer, PhotoMuse Collection, 2017, Gift of Dr. Unni Krishnan Pulikkal, Source – Mr. Dennis Waters, USA.

The daguerreotype was the first commercially successful photographic process (1839-1860) in the history of 19th-century photography. Named after the inventor Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre, each daguerreotype is a unique image on a silvered copper plate. To make the image, a daguerreotypist would polish a sheet of silver-plated copper to a mirror finish, treat it with fumes…

Portrait of Young Man, c.1860, Ambro Type, 50×40 mm, Unknown Photographer, PhotoMuse Collection, 2017, Gift of Dr. Unni Krishnan Pulikkal, Source – Herbert Ascherman Collection.

The ambrotype was invented by Frederick Scott Archer. It was introduced in the 1850s and is also known as a collodion positive in the UK. It is a positive photograph on glass made by a variant of the wet plate collodion process. Like a print on paper, it is viewed by reflected light. Each ambrotype…