By the turn of the century, photography was on its way to becoming a mass-market medium. In 1888, American entrepreneur George Eastman marketed the Kodak No. 1 box camera with the slogan 'you press the button, we do the rest,' and in 1900 his groundbreaking Brownie camera hit the market at the meagre price of one dollar (that's $36.50 today, but even so).

In this photo, a woman at the 1898 Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition peers into her camera in a pose that remained popular until the age of the smartphone.

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Now check out these incredible early images of the world's best-known landmarks

Incredible early photos of the 19th century world