A photography timeline is a good place to familiarize yourself with the names and technologies important to the history of photography.   Harvard University has one of the best!

Hints for Pre-Research

For photographers:

• Doublecheck spelling of name.  (Before you say, 'Doh!,'   typos are  a frequent cause of search fails.)
• Is the photographer is known by several names?
• Who influenced them?
• Who did they influence?
• What schools or movements where they associated with?
• Search for your photographers both as an "author" (works by)  and as a "subject"  (works about).       

For movements and schools:

• Who are the main photographers involved?
• Does the movement go by more than one name?  Perhaps in a different language?
• Are there related or overlapping movements?

For a technical history of photography:

• What keywords are associated with the cameras used?   
• What types of plates were used?
• What chemicals were used to develop images?
• What techniques were used to make prints?
• For modern photography, what technologies, computer programs, etc.  do you need to learn about?

For special topics:

• Are there special terms or keywords associated with your topic?
• Are there specific photographers associated with your topic?
• Might your topic cross over into other disciplines?

What's in a name?

• Nicéphore Niépce
• Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre
• Louis Désiré Blanquart-Evrard
• Eadweard Muybridge
• Gaspard Felix Tournachon, also known as Nadar

You've been schooled

• Naturalism
• Pictorialism
• Surrealism
• The Linked Ring (George Davidson)
• The Photo Succession (Alfred Steiglitz)
• F.64 (Edward Weston)
• Photojournalism

Technologies

• Daguerreotype
• Calotype
• Cyanotype
• Photographic lantern slide
• Lenticular stereoscope / Stereograph
• Albumen
• Wet plate collodion
• Glass negatives
• Ferrotype (tintype)

Topics

• Medical photography (operations, pathology)
• Death photography (Post mortem photography)
• Carte-de-visite and Cabinet photographs
• Locomotion studies
• Mug shots and crime scene photography
• Aerial or satellite photography
• Photojournalism, sports photography, fashion photography