William Henry Fox Talbot: Photography Pioneer

William Henry Fox Talbot was a British inventor, scientist and one of the earliest photographers in history. Experimenting with his “art of photogenic drawing,” he invented a new photographic process and made many important contributions to photographic art.

William Henry Fox Talbot was born on February 11, 1800, in Dorset, England. Both of his parents were from high-society families, and so Henry (he was called by his middle name) received the best education possible, even though his father died when he was just a baby and left his mother very poor. Henry was smart and curious as a child. He had many interests, including drawing and gardening. He attended boarding school and had a private tutor before entering Trinity College in Cambridge as a teenager. Henry graduated from college in 1821. However, he went on to get another degree in 1825.

After leaving school, Henry worked as a researcher and inventor. He published several papers on math and science. Then, in 1832, he was elected to Parliament.

Even as Henry started his political career, he still loved to draw and to invent things. In 1833, he went on a vacation to Italy with his new wife.

There they spent time at a beautiful lake. Henry tried to draw a picture of the scenery. He was very frustrated that his drawing did not capture what he saw in real life. It was then that he got the idea to figure out a way to capture nature on paper. Photography was born!

At home, Henry began experimenting with different chemicals and paper to create photographic negatives. The chemicals made the paper sensitive to light. When it was exposed to light, the paper captured an image. It could be reproduced as photographic prints. Henry had great success with this process. He soon quit politics and spent the next several years working on different mathematics problems and science experiments. He also continued working on his photography concept. By 1940, he set out to patent the idea of photographic negatives. He called his process calotype. Henry wrote a book about his photography. It was called “The Pencil of Nature” and was the very first book to contain photographs instead of drawings. His book was published in several parts between 1844 and 1846.

As the years passed, Henry continued taking photographs and inventing new things that made his process even better. He patented an engraving process that allowed photographs to be printed with ink rather than chemicals. In 1862, he won a medal at the International Exhibition in London for this work.

Henry died on September 17, 1877. He left behind many photographs, as well as stacks of research notes and letters to friends and family members about his inventions.

Written by Tamar Burris, a former elementary school teacher who now works as a freelance writer and curriculum developer for PBS, the Discovery Channel and other education-related companies. Sources: The Correspondence of William Henry Fox Talbot: Biography, foxtalbot.dmu.ac.uk/talbot/biography. html; William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877), www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/fox_talbot_william_henry.shtml; Getty Museum, www.getty.edu