William Henry Fox Talbot 1800-1877

In January 1839, Talbot presented his discoveries of 'photogenic drawing' to the Royal Institution. He then produced the first calotype in 1841: the first negative-positive process making possible multiple copies from a single negative. After patenting the calotype process, Talbot continued to make majour contributions to photography as an artistic medium. His most important publication The Pencil of Nature (1844-1847) culminated many of his photographic discoveries for which he was earlier awarded the Rumford Medal of the Royal Society. The Pencil of Nature was the first book to ever be illustrated entirely in photographs, displaying his various landscapes, plant studies, and the earliest views of British social life.