“Mirror with a Memory”: A historic photographic metaphor introduced in 1859 by the American physician and writer Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. to characterize the earliest photographic images, particularly daguerreotypes. The phrase directly referenced the physical nature of the daguerreotype, which was produced on a highly polished, silver-plated sheet of copper that literally cast a reflection like a standard mirror. Unlike an ordinary looking glass whose reflections disappear instantly, this unique silvered surface permanently preserved the light patterns that struck it, effectively giving the mirror a lasting memory.
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