In 1839 the daguerreotype proved popular in responding to the demand for portraiture emerging from the general public. But ultimately, In 1884 George Eastman, of Rochester, New York, developed dry gel on paper, or film, to replace the photographic plate so that a photographer no longer needed to carry boxes of plates and toxic chemicals around. In July 1888 Eastman's Kodak camera went on the market with the slogan "You press the button, we do the rest". Now anyone could take a photograph and leave the complex parts of the process to others, and photography became available for the mass-market in 1901 with the introduction of the Kodak Brownie. For the modern photographer processing black and white film, little has changed since the introduction of the 35mm film Leica camera in 1925.
In 1981, Sony unveiled the first consumer camera to use digital imaging, eliminating the need for film, changing the face of American photography forever.
Smithsonian Photography
Nelson-Atkins Museum
George Eastman House
SFMOMA Ansel Adams
Foto Museum
NCLC Lewsi Hines
UM Hines Collection
Lewis Hines served as chief photographer for the Works Progress Administration's (WPA) National Research Project, that studied changes in industry and their effect on employment. H The Library of Congress holds more than five thousand Hine photographs. Here a few images online from the National Archives from Lewis Hines.