Adrienne Lundgren, a Senior Photograph Conservator at the Library of Congress (where she has worked for the past 24 years) will discuss the history of the Amateur Photographic Exchange Club and its connections to today’s social media platforms at the next PHSNE virtual meetup. Join us Sunday, March 1 at 7:30 PM ET for this talk.

Exchanging photographs with strangers to build social networks of like-minded individuals is nothing new. From its invention in 1839, photography was devised as a means of conveying and sharing information. Photographers formed small, informal groups from the start, but it was not until the Amateur Photographic Exchange Club (1861–1863) that a formalized social network based on photography emerged in the United States.

From the initial request to connect to share “selfies,” the Amateur Photographic Exchange Club’s defined structure showed a striking similarity to how we currently engage with platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. Its members’ humorous exchanges, preserved in published literature, offer a grounding point for understanding how sharing images and ideas connected people and facilitated the formation of lasting friendships despite geographical distance, economic disparity, or political differences.

The 19th-Century Roots of Instagram: The Amateur Photographic Exchange Club (1861–1863) draws on archival documents, a review of contemporary literature, and an examination of exchanged images to explore these early photographic networks and their enduring relevance (https://tinyurl.com/mr8sv73h).

Lundgren’s research has focused on the technical aspects of photographic image production, particularly 19th and early 20th century processes. She has published extensively on topics such as coatings applied to daguerreotypes, the use of glycerine in platinum printing, and the materials and techniques of Pictorialist photographers Clarence H. White and F. Holland Day. She is currently working on a history of the dry collodion process.

Lundgren is the author of Magnificent Intentions: John Wood, First Federal Photographer (1856-1863) which was released in 2024. Her most recent book about Diane Arbus and her work for the Social Security Administration, has an expected release date of Spring 2027.