The first.

"I was startled. I had not expected a looking glass, nor an Empire frame in which the pewter plate lay like a painting. I went to the window, held the plate at an angle to the light, as one does with daguerreotypes. No image was to be seen. Then I increased the angle—and suddenly the entire courtyard scene unfolded itself in front of my eyes. The ladies were speechless. Was I practicing black magic on them? Then I turned the picture and read Francis Bauer's French and English inscription: "Monsieur Niépce's first successful experiment of fixing permanently the image from Nature," and the date below, 1827. Only a historian can understand my feeling at that moment. I had reached the goal of my research and held the foundation stone of photography in my hand. I felt myself in communication with Niépce. Your nightmare existence in a trunk is over," I thought. "[George] Potonniée was right. At long last you will be recognized as the inventor of photography. This picture will prove it to all the world."

Color digital print reproduction of Joseph Nicéphore Niépce's
View from the Window at Le Gras.
June 2002.
20.3 x 25.4 cm.
Read more: here.