Who Coined The Term ‘Snapshot’?

Definition of the word ‘snapshot’

Noun: an informal photograph taken quickly, typically with a small handheld camera.

If I had to guess when someone coined the term ‘snapshot’ I would think it was definitely within the past forty or fifty years. And if I was told it was earlier, I would guess in the 1930s. And if I was told it was even earlier, I would guess it was when Kodak brought out the Box Brownie camera in about 1900. If I was told it was even earlier, I would guess it was when George Eastman brought out the first Kodak camera in 1888.

In fact the term ‘snapshot’ was coined by Sir John Herschel, a British scientist and astronomer, in 1860. Herschel used the term to describe a photograph ‘taken quickly, as a hunter would take a quick shot without aiming carefully’.