William Henry Fox Talbot

1800–1877

After completing his studies at Harrow and Trinity College in Cambridge, W.H. Fox Talbot (1800-1877) worked as an archaeologist and philologist and wrote on chemistry, astronomy and physics. In 1835 he published his findings on the paper negative process he developed and further refined the technique, patenting the positive-negative process as the “calotype” in 1841. Unlike the rival French daguerreotype process, the talbotype allowed the negative to be reproduced in multiple prints. In 1844 he began illustrating his multi-volume book Pencil of Nature with architecture, object and landscape photographs. Along with Anna Atkins’s botanical publications, Talbot’s Pencil of Nature was one of the earliest books illustrated with photographs.