Why Frederick Douglass Never Smiled In Pictures

Поділитися
Вставка
  • Опубліковано 4 лют 2023
  • Frederick Douglass was the most photographed American in the 19th century, having his portrait taken more times than all the U.S. presidents of his time. But in almost 200 photographs, Douglass never smiled. That was on purpose. Here’s why.
    Subscribe for more videos: ajplus.co/subscribe

    Follow us on Instagram: / ajplus
    Like us on Facebook: / ajplusenglish
    Follow us on Twitter: / ajplus

КОМЕНТАРІ • 258

  • @dekyne3227
    @dekyne3227 Рік тому +338

    In his time period their wasn't anything to smile about

    • @mikelomez9313
      @mikelomez9313 Рік тому +19

      True but almost every person doesn't smile in photos back then because from what I understand you had to remain still for a long period in order to get the photo.

    • @jasonfink985
      @jasonfink985 Рік тому +10

      He had a white wife. That's something to smile about. 😂

    • @BendApparatus
      @BendApparatus Рік тому +5

      ​@@jasonfink985 so you're saying he was the 1st basketball star...😏

    • @michaelbolden4144
      @michaelbolden4144 Рік тому +4

      Generally speaking there's not too much to smile about now either, when factoring in all the variables of oppression as well as considering our communal plight that we all continue to share as Americans of African descent.

    • @SOULRELIEF22
      @SOULRELIEF22 Рік тому

      🎶🎵🎶"Steal away! Steal away! Steal away to JESUS!"
      JESUS had delivered us! It was time to sing and shout! We left JESUS behind, or the REVIVAL would have been ongoing!

  • @cassiusdhami9215
    @cassiusdhami9215 Рік тому +222

    “I have no love for America, as such, I have no patriotism. I have no country.”
    -Fredrick Douglas

    • @cassiusdhami9215
      @cassiusdhami9215 Рік тому +40

      "For revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy America reigns without a rival."
      -Frederick Douglass

    • @musicartlover963
      @musicartlover963 Рік тому +7

      Wow! Powerful words!!!!!

    • @kathygaither5746
      @kathygaither5746 Рік тому +7

      That's about right.

    • @andycandal5934
      @andycandal5934 Рік тому

      He could go back to Africa...why he didn't ?

    • @thetraveler1182
      @thetraveler1182 Рік тому +6

      @@kathygaither5746 about right for HIS TIME and experience. We live in a world that Mr.Douglass could have only dreamed of and even that was beyond

  • @MahsaSara
    @MahsaSara Рік тому +83

    Marian Anderson
    "No matter how big a nation is, it is no stronger than its weakest people, and as long as you keep a person down, some part of you has to be down there to hold him down, so it means you cannot soar as you might otherwise."

    • @kingrapid
      @kingrapid Рік тому +10

      💯💯💯👌👌👌🤌🤌🤌👏👏👏😎😎😎🙏🙏🙏❤️❤️❤️✊️✊️✊️

  • @cw4608
    @cw4608 Рік тому +121

    He was a very handsome and intelligent man whose pictures portray a warrior willing to go to any length for his cause.

    • @debrapaulino918
      @debrapaulino918 Рік тому +1

      Agree. He could easily been a womanizer but was a one woman man. His second wife after the death of the mother of his four children was white. They were only married a couple yrs when he passed.

    • @ninaj.4885
      @ninaj.4885 Рік тому +4

      @@debrapaulino918 I'm not sure about the one woman man part. He did his first wife real dirty.

    • @DJK-cq2uy
      @DJK-cq2uy Рік тому +1

      It is cool you recognize his good looks n determination...I've listened to George foreman preach n he mentions his good looks from time to time

    • @lettiegrant9447
      @lettiegrant9447 11 місяців тому

      So you were there?

    • @career5690
      @career5690 11 місяців тому

      @@ninaj.4885Really? Tell us about it.

  • @Queen.of.Quotes
    @Queen.of.Quotes Рік тому +53

    Every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains. Frederick Douglass
    I hear the mournful wail of millions! Frederick Douglass

  • @rudyalarcon3532
    @rudyalarcon3532 Рік тому +31

    It was not a good time to smile. That was the message.

  • @RolloRafferty
    @RolloRafferty Рік тому +106

    “Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope.” - Robert F Kennedy

    • @user-vc5qk9tg7u
      @user-vc5qk9tg7u Рік тому +6

      ...which would then rapidly extinguished by the feudal class hiding behind mega c0rporations

  • @mnoir8888
    @mnoir8888 Рік тому +39

    In the early days of photography, no one was obsessed with fake SMILING as Americans are now. Edward S Curtis took volumes of photographs of Native Americans and you’d be hard pressed to find anyone smiling in his pictures. Photography was complicated and expensive and used to record one’s likeness. It wasn’t on their phones and wasn’t just a light activity. Much preparation had to be applied. No one smiled for photographs back then.

    • @AttaMan
      @AttaMan Рік тому +4

      Just say you didn’t watch the video.

    • @genox3636
      @genox3636 11 місяців тому +3

      ​@@AttaManhe's right tho.

    • @gretaferebee3179
      @gretaferebee3179 6 місяців тому +1

      If you fid smile, it simply resulted in a distraction in your facial features. Everyone held completely STILL for ALL PHOTOS.

  • @haisee1671
    @haisee1671 Рік тому +14

    This man knows the value of timing emotions in crucial situations.

  • @katrinawall7758
    @katrinawall7758 11 місяців тому +11

    He was a handsome man.

  • @brendaturner5015
    @brendaturner5015 Рік тому +12

    My father was born in 1942, and he still doesn't smile on pictures, when we ask him to smile,you can tell it's fake,so we don't 😊

  • @Spencer7660
    @Spencer7660 Рік тому +8

    I don’t expect him to smile after how he was treated

  • @sonnyliston4741
    @sonnyliston4741 Рік тому +25

    What the f, NOBODY smiled in photos back in those days.

    • @ebarbee44146
      @ebarbee44146 11 місяців тому

      You people can be so numb and ignorant. This revisionist history you want to portray will never take the place of truth.

  • @davidjhitztaler-mrrocklight
    @davidjhitztaler-mrrocklight 4 місяці тому +2

    Pride ❤ Pride ❤ Intelligence. Frederick was a Wiseman ❤ Honesty ❤ still miss you ❤

  • @958298bordeaux
    @958298bordeaux 11 місяців тому +5

    A handsome elegant Ancestor who didn't play

  • @juditrotter5176
    @juditrotter5176 11 місяців тому +5

    I contrast his quiet strength, maintaining his dignity.

  • @Koshy210
    @Koshy210 Рік тому +6

    A photograph speaks a thousand words that is powerful to the core.

  • @sailordaigurren8225
    @sailordaigurren8225 Рік тому +32

    People generally didn't smile in photos back then, in part because of how long it took.

  • @3rdmm
    @3rdmm Рік тому +13

    Nobody smiled in oil portraits either.

  • @gloriouse4458
    @gloriouse4458 Рік тому +6

    DOUGLAS WAS SPIRITUALLY GUIDED 👍🏼🍃💓🙏🏽

  • @n.c.467
    @n.c.467 11 місяців тому +5

    Actually, daguerrotype picture-taking was completely unlike today's digital photos. It could not capture fleeting smiles and other nuances. One had to sit stock-still, holding a single pose for lengthy periods of time, to capture a daguerrotype image ...which is why smiles were absent in the final picture

  • @benjaminbreland86
    @benjaminbreland86 10 місяців тому +2

    This was an excellent presentation. Thank you

  • @ninaj.4885
    @ninaj.4885 Рік тому +4

    Nobody smiled in these pictures, did they? I can't think of hardly any where the person smiled.

  • @psouth100
    @psouth100 Рік тому +8

    Nobody was smiling in a single photo that was show 🤣

  • @cauliflowerpower41
    @cauliflowerpower41 Рік тому +3

    He's beautiful

  • @harvestcanada
    @harvestcanada Рік тому +1

    Excellent work.

  • @dreamlife2351
    @dreamlife2351 Рік тому

    Excellent channel 🕊

  • @parrotcracker6629
    @parrotcracker6629 Рік тому +8

    Back then, it took a very long time for the camera to capture anything and one single move could create a blur. It's hard to smile for a very long time and you have to concentrate on staying still as well. This is nothing but BS reporting.

    • @xavierclayton9990
      @xavierclayton9990 Рік тому +1

      White answer.

    • @tonyborelli.
      @tonyborelli. 11 місяців тому

      get real. none of the other photos showed smiles either. grow up

  • @shannons.571
    @shannons.571 11 місяців тому

    Thank you, i enjoyed learning from this video. It was informative.

  • @rebeccagutierrez1960
    @rebeccagutierrez1960 Місяць тому +1

    Almost nobody sniled in pictures in the past, not just him. My parents were born in 1924 and 1927, and in their pics, they didn't smile...that was a thing.

  • @cozmowiz5593
    @cozmowiz5593 Рік тому

    I cant help but notice you watched the PBS special on Frederick Douglas.......well done and nicely presented. Bravo

  • @Dog.eatdog
    @Dog.eatdog Рік тому +26

    It is nothing special that Douglas didn't smile in his portraits.
    In the 1800´s that was absolutely the norm.
    It is almost impossible to find a studio portrait of that time where people smile.

    • @jeanmccorkle1035
      @jeanmccorkle1035 Рік тому

      Yes, but blacks were depicted as smiling, trying to indicate that slavery was not as horrific as it was. Frederick Douglass knew that and showed the opposite of what whites and blacks saw in other pictures of black people.

    • @sailordaigurren8225
      @sailordaigurren8225 Рік тому +5

      This

    • @CadyCadwell
      @CadyCadwell Рік тому +1

      this anti American propaganda media will always find away to racially segregate and destroy US fom the inside, this mtfkr doesn't even have the balls to cover the ongoing modern slavery in their own country...

    • @NaturalBrownCupcake
      @NaturalBrownCupcake 11 місяців тому +1

      Wow@ these people.
      So you think they're the ones who produced this video? So many times it's non-"these people" producing media and speaking for those people. Look at who the senior producers are for this company. And in some cases, it's your people selling narratives.

    • @shaymay2892
      @shaymay2892 10 місяців тому

      ​​@@tonyborelli. But you clicked on "these people" 's video.

  • @hopes.t.1092
    @hopes.t.1092 3 місяці тому

    Thank you for sharing, I really enjoyed the video. No matter how old I am, I love learning.

  • @soulonice99
    @soulonice99 Рік тому +1

    Please forward this video to the 'Essence Awards' website, public relations, marketing. They need a lesson.

  • @MYInteriorArchitect
    @MYInteriorArchitect 9 місяців тому +1

    اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَسْأَلُكَ فِعْلَ الخَيْرَاتِ ، وَتَرْكَ المُنْكَرَاتِ ، وَحُبَّ المَسَاكِينَ ، وَأَنْ تَغْفِرَ لِي وَتَرْحَمَنِي ، وَإذَا أَرَدْتَ فِتْنَةَ قَومٍ فَتَوَفَّنِي غَيْرَ مَفْتُونٍ ، وَأَسْأَلُكَ حُبَّكَ ، وَحُبَّ مَنْ يُحِبّـُكَ ، وَحُبَّ كل عَمَلٍ يُقَرِّبُنِي إِلَى حُبِّـكَ

  • @CaxaJIun
    @CaxaJIun Рік тому

    it is helping me to under stand more👍

  • @brazaniankamrazian104
    @brazaniankamrazian104 Рік тому

    This was such a dope video thank u, sorry for the shadowban damn

  • @michaelhughes9553
    @michaelhughes9553 Рік тому +4

    Why doesn’t he smile in photos? It seems like the opening line of he was born into slavery and had to escape would be answer enough, but I’ll keep watching…

  • @natemickens88
    @natemickens88 11 місяців тому +1

    I love it!!

  • @Funsizedscholar
    @Funsizedscholar 11 місяців тому +1

    These people were in a time of limited media compared to our, but understood the power of controlling their image! I wish we understood that now.

  • @LyricalXilence
    @LyricalXilence 3 місяці тому +1

    No one smiled in photos back then. Why is this a question?!

  • @TheOrionOracle
    @TheOrionOracle Рік тому +7

    What will make you know what is the difficult path to Paradise? It is the freeing of a sl ve. Surat Al-Balad 90:12-13

  • @josephcadwell6773
    @josephcadwell6773 11 місяців тому +1

    Many people in early photographs didn’t smile.

  • @roddanlives2650
    @roddanlives2650 Рік тому +1

    Man, people did not smile in photos back then.

    • @GoLongAmerica
      @GoLongAmerica Рік тому

      I don't think it became a common practice to smile in photos until the 20th century.

  • @annieroche22
    @annieroche22 Рік тому +1

    Apparently , he liked Ireland. The one country where he began to feel properly free.

  • @BravoDeus
    @BravoDeus Рік тому +3

    Wrong! No one smiled back then as you saw from all the other subjects as well as FD. There was no such thing as a snapshot back then. One had to sit for TEN minutes for the image to burn into the film. It is impossible to smile for that long perfectly it would just cause a blur. Which is common in photos of that era typically of the hands. The snapshot came with the advent of the flash which burned the image instantly. This video should have been strictly about how he posed not about his lack of a smile.

    • @GoLongAmerica
      @GoLongAmerica Рік тому

      Everyone posed the same for photos back then, and no one smiled in them, not even President Lincoln.

  • @noexit4458
    @noexit4458 Рік тому +8

    It’s funny, none of the other figures you were showing: Emily Dickinson, Abraham Lincoln, or Sojourner Truth was smiling for their portrait either. They took photographing a serious matter back then.

  • @divox9pqr
    @divox9pqr 10 місяців тому +1

    Smiling in a photograph was not conventional behavior in this period. I am aware of only one photograph where Lincoln has a slight smile. But the showing of teeth in photograph was considered poor taste.

  • @Jdotrhh
    @Jdotrhh 4 місяці тому

    Clearly the man had gone through a lot

  • @Madmen604
    @Madmen604 4 місяці тому

    Nice narrative.

  • @coreylakshmanaswamy4741
    @coreylakshmanaswamy4741 Рік тому +1

    My guy would’ve killed it on instagram I tell you what

  • @derrickburden1472
    @derrickburden1472 4 місяці тому

    He was a real one he went thru hell and stood for blacks I'm thankful

  • @lordcron
    @lordcron 11 місяців тому +4

    Quit simply, there was nothing to smile about. Should he have felt grateful to be free from something that should never have happened in the first place?! Hell No! It wasn't a game for him or any other person of color at that time.

  • @yvonneplant9434
    @yvonneplant9434 Рік тому +2

    Lincoln never smiled in photographs either.

  • @minerran
    @minerran Рік тому +2

    Many people don't smile in photos today. Many times I don't unless my wife forces me to because I don't think I have a nice smile. We can't draw any conclusions at all from F. Douglass not smiling. Also when I see photos from that time period, the people usually didn't smile so it might have been common at the time.

    • @user-vc5qk9tg7u
      @user-vc5qk9tg7u Рік тому

      you are not wrong, what is there to smile for ...blacks were constantly beaten, raped and murdered, and lynched, it would be a miracle to smile about your own destructions. totally agree with you but in modern times, the blacks have learnt to accept their fate more willingly to accept being shot at during traffic stop for example, once they accept that, they'll be happier. Welcome to Amarika.

    • @aboriginalstraightshooter7967
      @aboriginalstraightshooter7967 Рік тому

      ​@@user-vc5qk9tg7uNo they weren't! I've read books written in that time frame almost more than half of black we're doing quite well. Contrary to what you been indoctrinated to believe, when I started pulling up my family records they were doing well at that time. Yes there were issues with white people coming to steal kill and destroy. But it was not as prevalent as they make it seem and we have never been a weak people. Propaganda didn't start in the last 50 years it's been here since they got here. & many weren't enslaved smh

  • @dplj4428
    @dplj4428 10 місяців тому +1

    Did the photo media of his time require people to be motionless?

  • @dplj4428
    @dplj4428 10 місяців тому

    His face reminds me of football legend Jim Brown.

  • @MovingInnerMountains
    @MovingInnerMountains Рік тому

    🔥

  • @Starboy-mp2ci
    @Starboy-mp2ci Рік тому +1

    Why? What was it to smile about back then?

  • @beverleyreid7572
    @beverleyreid7572 11 місяців тому

    What a handsome man though!

  • @TheSoloist1Alone
    @TheSoloist1Alone 11 місяців тому +1

    🙏🏾✊🏾

  • @derrickburden1472
    @derrickburden1472 4 місяці тому

    Why he doesn't have a big Hollywood movie

  • @SuperKwame1
    @SuperKwame1 11 місяців тому

    I am 60 yrs old man from Africa, I don't remember taken any pictures with a smile!

  • @coltonsimmonds6991
    @coltonsimmonds6991 11 місяців тому

    'Whats The Point In A Fake Smile For Freedom'.

  • @oolong2
    @oolong2 Рік тому +21

    It was generally not common to smile in photos back then anyway. So he was basically doing the norm.

    • @xavierclayton9990
      @xavierclayton9990 Рік тому

      So you're ignoring slavery ? Typical white comment.

    • @oolong2
      @oolong2 Рік тому

      @@xavierclayton9990 When you make assumptions about the people you're responding to you look like a fool.... What does my comment have to do with slavery?

    • @shaymay2892
      @shaymay2892 10 місяців тому

      So, the focus was primarily on his _posing_ and facial expressions.

  • @sunnyhoney7665
    @sunnyhoney7665 Рік тому +1

    What was there to smile about during that era????

  • @user-ki8ei6mi4w
    @user-ki8ei6mi4w 11 місяців тому +1

    What was there to smile about!

  • @williebateman3613
    @williebateman3613 11 місяців тому

    We’re to keep god’s laws amen 💪🏾💐💕

  • @ourpeoplespoll1474
    @ourpeoplespoll1474 Рік тому +11

    For the title, there wasn’t anything to smile about. Slavery was very very bad! Teach the kids what it REALLY was, we don’t care about their guilty feelings. It HAPPENED and it’s HISTORY

    • @user-vc5qk9tg7u
      @user-vc5qk9tg7u Рік тому

      did you say history, I am not so sure, try telling Floyd's family, and all those blacks who lost their lives at traffic stops or whilst buying ice creams, who later "couldn't breathe" once the police intervened in the name of "law enforcement".
      Sounds like legal lynching/shooting, but I guess that's okay, given it's all "legal".

    • @doloresboston8571
      @doloresboston8571 Рік тому +1

      They have no issue and are content with our children continuing to be inflicted with generational pain due to them and their ancestors.

    • @patricebrown777
      @patricebrown777 Рік тому +1

      100% 👍🏽

  • @frederickcook87
    @frederickcook87 11 місяців тому

    ✊🏾❤️✊🏾

  • @brendadavis4554
    @brendadavis4554 11 місяців тому

    He went through a lot. Maybe he didn't have all his teeth or maybe kicked out his mouth. 1800's was terrible. They were lucky to get a picture periodt!

  • @Cmrmusic734
    @Cmrmusic734 11 місяців тому

    F.D. clinical he was like picture this smile😠 I'm just the future picker upper.

  • @Romeoleus
    @Romeoleus 11 місяців тому +2

    This is a factual misrepresentation. Virtually NO photographic subjects EVER smiled when they were photographed until the early 20th century! Speculation as to why Douglass didn't smile is nonsense.

    • @leobriccocola8141
      @leobriccocola8141 Місяць тому +1

      Frederick Douglas explicitly disliked it when an artist depicted him with a slight smile. In one letter, Douglas expressed frustration that the smile made it appear as if he was untroubled or unburdened by his experiences as an enslaved person. This is likely a major reason behind his love of photography as it granted him control over his own image.
      There's an excellent article titled "Frederick Douglass’s Camera Obscura: Representing the Antislave “Clothed and in Their Own Form” " that explores this.

  • @abdallahmuhammad-bey8810
    @abdallahmuhammad-bey8810 11 місяців тому +2

    There wasn't nothing to smile during slavery.

  • @dplj4428
    @dplj4428 10 місяців тому

    James Van derzee

  • @aslkdjfzxcv9779
    @aslkdjfzxcv9779 6 місяців тому

    fd was great.

  • @bang8534
    @bang8534 Рік тому +1

    With the hell he was catching, there was nothing to smile about. How can you smile with vile beasts on your back?

  • @shaystern2453
    @shaystern2453 11 місяців тому

    traditional posing, carried on through time

  • @nubianking7097
    @nubianking7097 Рік тому

    Show me a photo of anyone at all with a smile on their face from that time period.
    saying cheese for the camera was not done in the early age of photography.
    Damn we have been lied to long enough, must we now lie to each other?

  • @shaymay2892
    @shaymay2892 10 місяців тому

    .......how in the World did Obama slip into this.
    These men are _two_ different people!

  • @Ma1nguy
    @Ma1nguy 10 місяців тому

    I only smile at family and friends never to strangers, guess I picked it up from Dad, He never grinned in the face of White men, He was one not to be reckoned with. Cordial but never fawning nor laughing, I've become my father

  • @kreativeforce532
    @kreativeforce532 Рік тому

    Cuz shit wasn't sweet back then. Also because he's a man. Stoic. Intelligent.

  • @katev3832
    @katev3832 11 місяців тому

    Slow shutter speed well into the 1900s. Please don't inflame ❤

  • @original_USA_cowgirl
    @original_USA_cowgirl 10 місяців тому +2

    If you look at black peoples pictures of that time nobody smiled....tf was there to smile about?

  • @liteazwell1913
    @liteazwell1913 2 дні тому

    This is complete BS. Having studied the history of photography in depth at JMU, I know for a fact that the exposure time was so long that people had to sit still for 15 minutes for a portrait. Nobody smiled because a smile cannot be held that long unless you are a Rockette.

  • @desouzawilly8343
    @desouzawilly8343 8 місяців тому

    How can he smile and his own people are in pain of evil masters

  • @blackcherry6877
    @blackcherry6877 11 місяців тому

    No one smiled in their pictures back then, no one.

  • @fortunatomartino8549
    @fortunatomartino8549 Рік тому +1

    If he lived in Africa he would have smiled

  • @The_Opinion_of_Matt
    @The_Opinion_of_Matt Рік тому +5

    Comment during pre-roll ads as a guess. The photos were taken on tin-type photography and required long exposure times. Pretty much no one smiled for portraits during the 1800s because it was too hard to hold still for the time required for the picture to turn out.

    • @The_Opinion_of_Matt
      @The_Opinion_of_Matt Рік тому +3

      I was wrong. I thought tin-type lasted longer, or rather thought paper photography was developed later. Douglas even stated his intentions so there is no way to misconstrue his expression. None of us know everything. Never be afraid to admit you were wrong about something.

    • @fatimaperez9181
      @fatimaperez9181 Рік тому

      @@The_Opinion_of_Matt thanks

  • @Jamie-nt3eh
    @Jamie-nt3eh Рік тому +1

    Being a black person in America at a time when slavery was law would you smile?

  • @davidmills9685
    @davidmills9685 11 місяців тому +1

    They didn't smile because you wernt supposed to smile if they did the picture would come out blurry and that wasn't just because for only blacks,also you wernt supposed to show your teeth the reason why people didn't smile back then it was considered impolite .

  • @1m2rich
    @1m2rich 11 місяців тому

    Neither did Lincoln. People at the time wanted to be important and serious...of all races.

  • @Yenchantress1isaStarr
    @Yenchantress1isaStarr 10 місяців тому +2

    It is a PSYOP.

    • @djenkins555
      @djenkins555 2 місяці тому

      He was a freemason. Ultimately, he did more to hurt Black people.

  • @mrmaxxx94
    @mrmaxxx94 11 місяців тому

    In this time nothing to smile about neither in Amerikkka

  • @soniadrummond2169
    @soniadrummond2169 Рік тому

    Why they didn't smile they saw things that was probably unpleasant and the treatment

  • @b20di3
    @b20di3 Рік тому +11

    I pretty much was sure of this already but to be sure I just did a search for "when did smiling in photos become common" and got the answer of 1920s. So FD not smiling was likely the norm... not an unusual exception.

  • @victorevanssr.5034
    @victorevanssr.5034 11 місяців тому

    Y didn't he smile? Are u kidding me?

  • @agentshaunsmith
    @agentshaunsmith 11 місяців тому

    Why is FL allow to rewrite History? 🤷🏽‍♂️

  • @NuraCaicedo-xh2ok
    @NuraCaicedo-xh2ok 11 місяців тому

    I drew Frederick Douglass when I was waiting in the welfare office one day

  • @Faceplay2
    @Faceplay2 Рік тому +2

    I hate to break it to you, but it’s nothing special about him on why he’s not smiling. It was extremely rare for anyone to be smiling in photos.
    For one getting a photo was a very special thing at the time and very costly. It also took quite a bit of time to photograph someone. So you won’t find most world figures in the 1800s smiling. That didn’t really become popular until around the 1920’s with the growth of the movie star