French photography in nineteenth-century Iceland

The French mineralogist Alfred Descloiseaux (1817–1897) was probably the first person to take photographs in Iceland. Later, he became professor at the Ecole Normale Superieure and at the Natural History Museum in Paris, member of the Academy of Sciences from 1869, and its president in 1889. His speciality was the optical characteristics of crystals, and how to use them for optical instruments. His studies are now considered to be the solid foundation of modem lithology. © 1999 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.