Here is one of the most famous cathedrals in the world, but only an aficionado would recognize it. This is the west view, and and it looks like just another blocky church. Most people are more familiar with the other side, where the distinctive flying buttresses give it a profile as memorable as that tower thing in another part of the city. This is, of course, Notre-Dame Cathedral, in Paris. The premiere example of Gothic architecture, construction took from 1163 until about 1345, over 175 years. And here it is in a picture about 150 years old.

This public domain image was taken by photographer Edouard Baldus (1813-1882), probably around 1852 when he undertook an extensive architectural study of Paris scenes. Baldus was a Prussian-born artist, working first as a painter and lithographer, and only turning to photography in 1849. Curiously, he seems to have used a version of the Calotype process, using paper negatives, rather than daguerreotypes — even though he was working in France, birthplace of daguerreotypy. He used large negatives, as big as 10 x 14 inches, much larger than any daguerreotype plates available at that time. Contact printing such a large negative overcame some of the limitations of using the paper-based negative.