Imagine a photograph so detailed that the smallest images can be seen.

Imagine being able to clearly observe the stripes on a candy cane in a store's window display.

Kodak has yet to invent a digital camera that can do it.

However, a type of photography, invented in 1839, was able to depict features with this degree of clarity.

The daguerreotype shows much more detail than any other photographing process, according to Glenn Willumson, senior curator at the Palmer Museum of Art.

Skeptics be aware, there is now evidence to prove it. Eighty pieces of proof.

History Past, History Present: The Daguerreotype Portrait in America is on exhibit at the Palmer Museum through May 20.

The exhibit will give viewers insight into the process and history of this art form.

One daguerreotype shows a Philadelphia bakery, with a glass jar in the window display. When blown up, the detail of the candy can easily be seen.

"In regular photography, if you blow it up, you can't make out the detail," Willumson said.

Daguerreotypes, which were produced until about 1860, were made with a silver-coated copper plate that was exposed in the camera and then developed over mercury vapor.

Every portrait at the Palmer Museum is one of a kind.

"There is no negative. You have a unique image, unlike other photographs," said Jennifer Noonan (graduate-art history).

The exhibit's centerpiece is a portrait of Colonel James Duncan, from the Palmer Museum's own collection.

It is considered to be one of the finest examples of daguerrian portraiture in America.

Not only is its subject, a veteran of the Mexican War, famous, but the plate also was signed by a well-known Civil War photographer.

Mathew Brady's name is etched there, and only six daguerreotypes credited with his name are still in existance.

Colonel Duncan was considered to be an example of an "illustrious American," and prints of such people were reproduced to hang on family's walls.

"The way daguerreotypes were used to promote certain people is interesting," Noonan said.

"The exhibit is about America in the 1850s. The idea was that America had lost its moral compass," Willumson said. "It was believed that by looking at these people, you would become a moral person," he said.

By showing what made people famous then, Willumson hopes viewers will think about how modern society evaluates fame.

The exhibit also has an educational component.

"Everything is made so concrete that it is easy to understand the process of the daguerreotype," Noonan said.

Entering the exhibit is a bit of a history lesson.

Viewers are greeted by a life-sized image on the wall of a photographer leaning against his old-fashioned camera.

Daguerreotypes range from a Native American Indian chief to a portrait of a young girl that was taken after she had passed away.

Visitors will also see what a daguerreotype studio looked like.

"We have a studio set up so people can visualize what it was like," Willumson said.

The display includes authentic equipment and a life-sized mannequin dressed in period costume.

The figure is wearing a clamp around her neck.

"It took so long for a daguerreotype to be made that they used head clamps to hold your head," Willumson said.

"We have a picture where you can see the clamp."

The Penn State libraries and WPSX-TV have collaborated with the Palmer Museum on this project.

The three entities are working together to provide a peek into the early 19th century.

Lectures on the subject will be given several times throughout the semester.