Cornhill
23 Septr /39
Sir,
Allow us to request your kind Acceptance of the accompanying Copy of Dr Memes’ Translation of Daguerre’s History & Practice of Photogenic Drawing, <1> which we have recently published – a subject to which you have devoted so much attention & the original discovery of which we believe to belong to you. –
It was Dr Memes’s wish to have alluded to this, at some length, in the present Work, but the very limited time he was able to give to the translation, & his being obliged to leave Town immediately it was completed, prevented his giving it that attention he so much desired. – We intend publishing another Edition in a very short time,<2> and shall be happy to insert any notice of this circumstance which you may be pleased to forward to us for that purpose. –
We are, Sir, Your Ob Serts
Smith Elder & Co
H. F. Talbot Esqre
Notes:
1. J. S. Memes, History and Practice of Photogenic Drawing on the True Principles of the Daguerréotype, with a New Method of Dioramic Painting; Secrets Purchased by the French Government and by Their Command Published for the Benefit of the Arts and Manufactures: by the Inventor L. J. M. Daguerre, Officer of the Legion of Honour, and Member of Various Academies. Translated from the Original by J. S. Memes, LL. D. Hon. mem. of the Royal Scottish Academy of Fine Arts, Etc. (London: Smith, Elder and Co.; Edinburgh: Adam Black and Co., 1839). John Smythe Memes published books on art and architecture, mathematics and even on Napoleon.
2. This was never published. Although WHFT could not have been pleased that they had given credit for photogenic drawing to Daguerre, he responded positively, urging that credit be given to Niépce as well - see Doc. No: 03956. Rev. Dr. John Smythe Memes (1801-13 May 1858), born in Ayrshire, Scotland, originally practised as a teacher until he was ordained in 1844. A Fellow of the Astronomical Society of London, Memes was better known as a linguist and the author of books on diverse subjects in art and architecture, mathematics and even on Napoleon and the Empress Josephine. He died at Hamilton, Lanarkshire, where he was the Church of Scotland minister.