In January of 1839, Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre announced to the Académie des Sciences in Paris his invention of photography. He called his pictures daguerreotypes. And when the miners headed west, the new art of photography went with them. Many had their portraits taken before they left as mementoes for family left behind; others availed themselves of the services of itinerant photographers such as Batchelder's Daguerrian Saloon. It was, for many, their most vivid souvenir of their days of glory, no doubt, vivid illustrations to the tales told to their grandchildren.