Dr Francesca Galligan writes: In 2012 the Bodleian Libraries were presented with an opportunity to save for the nation the last significant portion of material in private hands relating to Henry Talbot, pioneer of photography.
While Talbot is best known today for his invention of two photographic processes - the photogenic drawing, announced in 1839, and the calotype, patented in 1841 - his achievements went far beyond photography. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society, and his name endures in Talbot's curve (mathematics), Talbot's law (optics), and the Talbot (physics). He published nearly seventy works in fields including electricity, optics, physics, mathematics, etymology, philology, classics, Assyrian, and photography, some of which remain at the forefront of research today. He was one of the first scholars to decipher cuneiform, and served as Member of Parliament for Chippenham.
The Personal Archive spans his wide interests and areas of scholarship, offering a wealth of manuscripts, printed material, photographs, albums, and artefacts that illumine the private, social, and intellectual spheres that informed the discoveries of this Victorian polymath. It reveals how the range of scholarly pursuits and the interests he shared with his family shaped his ground-breaking work, offering examples of the educative roles of women within the family, and of women as artists, botanists, linguists, and as collectors and practitioners of the new photographic art.
There are early and unique experimental photographs by Talbot, and an album holds a photograph by his wife Constance which is thought to be the earliest by a woman to survive. Also present are the family's photographic collections, with rare works by Frederick Scott Archer, Frédéric Flacheron, William Lake Price, Roger Fenton, Bisson Frères, and calotypes by George Bridges with notes on the verso to Talbot, seeking advice on the process.
Manuscripts include unpublished scientific work and notebooks by Talbot, an exercise book and childhood letters that provide insights into his formative years, and family diaries and correspondence. There are corrected proofs and annotated books from Talbot's library, including books from his childhood, books showing his scholarly working, and monumental works such as his own copy of Great Exhibition of the works of industry of all nations, 1851: Reports of the Juries, illustrated with 150 calotypes. The archive also preserves rare broadsides relating to Talbot's political activity and to Lacock Abbey.
The Friends of the National Libraries awarded a grant of £15,000 towards the purchase of this remarkable archive, adding to grants from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the Art Fund of £1,250,000 and £200,000 respectively, and many smaller donations. The acquisition has already raised considerable interest, including a substantial deposit of largely unknown early photogenic drawings by Talbot from the family of John Dillwyn Llewelyn. From 2014 the Bodleian, in conjunction with the University of Oxford's department of the History of Art, will host a Mellon post-doctoral Fellow with research interests in Talbot.
