The birth of travel photography: Du Camp and Flaubert’s 1849 trip to Egypt, North Africa and the Middle East - Imaging Resource

A photographic sensation
Upon their return to France, Du Camp made salted paper prints from his negatives. These were simply more Calotype papers, printed in contact with the paper negatives, to produce positive prints. The prints were mounted on heavy paper, and then bound in albums that Du Camp sold in 1852 under the title “Egypte, Nubie, Palestine, Syrie.”

This was arguably the world’s first travel photography book and the images amazed the public. It made Du Camp famous almost overnight.
 
Whenever I see a horde of tourists, cameras in hand, photographing everything in sight, I think of Gustave and Max. Today's snapshooters have no idea how hard it once was to photograph the world, something they can do now so easily with just the press of a button.

via imaging-resource.com

Very cool.