January 2018

The Pencil of Talbot (& mysterious others)

26 Jan 2018: Yesterday (in 1839), in hasty response to Daguerre’s surprise announcement in Paris, Henry Talbot first revealed his photogenic drawing process to the public. His vehicle for this was a rapidly organised exhibition at the Royal Institution in London, following the customary weekly lecture by his friend Michael Faraday. The popular lecturer marveled that “no human …

Floating Philosophic Visions

19 Jan 2018: Origin or creation stories are often problematic, for invariably they involve imperfect or partial memories of a near-distant or far-distant past. Often these are filtered through contemporary needs or desires, sometimes deliberately, sometimes unconsciously. The first time that Henry Talbot was confronted with recollecting the roots of his invention was in January 1839 when he …

Around the World in 80 yards – Brunel and the SS Great Britain

12 Jan 2018: Rose Teanby, our resident Isambard Kingdom Brunel expert, now turns her attention from London’s Hungerford Bridge to another aspect of the interaction between Henry Talbot and the famed Victorian engineer. If you have yet to read the correspondence between them, I suggest that you have a look at the struggle between two men who shared …

Lost Friends, Bomb Cyclones and a Country Covered With Snow

5 Jan 2018: Instead of starting 2018 with laments, I would rather briefly celebrate the lives well spent of two photohistorians who were friends and who had very different but dramatic effects on my Talbot studies. Both were swept away late last year by illness, long before their time. Dr Bodo-Balthasar von Dewitz passed away on 17 November. …