Historedia
Episode 1 of 1

First Aerial Photographs

When
1858
Where
Paris
Part of
Nadar takes the first aerial photograph from a moored balloon

In 1858 Nadar became the first person to take aerial photographs, working from a tethered balloon; the sources fix only the year, not a specific day.

The Nadar source states that in 1858 he became the first person to take aerial photographs. The balloon source distinguishes tethered balloons, fixed to a point, from free balloons moving with the wind, consistent with photography from a moored balloon. The supplied passages confirm only the year 1858; the legacy date of 1 August 1858 is one of several claimed dates and is not stated in any supplied passage. The specific site within Paris, such as Petit-Bicêtre or Bièvre, is likewise not confirmed by the supplied passages, so Paris is given as the occurrence locality.

Sources

  1. Nadar Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-12
  2. Balloon (aeronautics) Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-13

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.