For those with really old lenses, what famous picture has been taken from it?

[ericantonio]

So if you bought say a lens from .... ohhh, days of Lincoln or after, any chance you would know what famous picture was taken with it?

Like "this so and so lens, was used to take a picture of Ulysis L. Grant".

That would be like a pretty good conversation piece.

[Mark Sawyer]

It's fairly rare, though not unheard of, to know the exact provenance of an individual lens. I can say "I have an 18-inch Verito like Edward Weston used to make his early Pictorial work", or I have a Mammoth-size Globe lens just like the one Watkins used to photograph Yosemite and all over the West", but they're not (or at least not likely to be) the individual lens used to make those images.

Yes, they're great conversation pieces, and treasured bits of history. But best of all, they still work as well as they ever did!