John Whipple first photographed the moon in Dec. 1849, a daguerreotype taken through the telescope at the Harvard College Observatory in Cambridge. Although he did not make the first lunar photograph in America, in terms of accuracy and aesthetics Whipple produced what were internationally recognized as the most sublime photographs of the moon. A maxim in astronomy says the more clearly one can see an space, the more beautiful it looks. http://metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/263167?rss=1