link to Talbot Project home page link to De Montfort University home page link to Glasgow University home page
Project Director: Professor Larry J Schaaf
 

Back to the letter search >

Document number: 06444
Date: 27 Jul 1851
Recipient: TALBOT William Henry Fox
Author: HERSCHEL John Frederick William
Collection: National Science and Media Museum, Bradford
Collection number: 1937-4988
Collection 2: British Library, London, Manuscripts - Fox Talbot Collection
Collection 2 number: envelope 20494
Collection 3: Royal Society, London
Collection 3 number: HS23:106
Last updated: 21st June 2010

32 Harley Street <1>
July 27/51

My dear Sir

A brother in law of mine Mr J. Stewart <2> is very desirous to get some lessons while in London on the Art of Talbotypy <3> (with the Albuminous improvement if possible) to aid him in travelling. Do you know & can you recommend any artist who would give such or if not, what book should he procure for a brief working code of instructions and where can he get the apparatus and materials special to the Talbotype process

Excuse haste & believe me Yours very ty
JFW Herschel

We are all astonishment & expectation of being more astonished – at your late experiments.<4>

[envelope]
H.F. Talbot Esr
Lacock Abbey
near Chippenham
Wilts
[added in another hand] Somerset

[There is also a Herschel family fair copy in The Royal Society]

Notes:

1. London.

2. John Stewart (b. 1814) the younger brother of Margaret Brodie Herschel (neé Stewart).

3. Although WHFT modestly used the term calotype, Herschel and other loyal supporters honoured him by calling these Talbotypes, in parallel with the term Daguerreotype.

4. This was WHFT's experiment with high-speed photography, carried out at the Royal Institution on 14 June 1851; see Doc. No: 06429. An account was soon published in the Athenaeum, no. 1258, 6 December 1851, pp. 1286-1287.