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Document number: 03800
Date: 09 Feb 1839
Recipient: MARTIUS Carl Friedrich Philipp von
Author: TALBOT William Henry Fox
Collection: Preus Fotomuseum / Norsk Museum for Fotografi
Last updated: 5th May 2010

v. Martius

London, 44 Queen Ann Street
9 February 1839

My Dear Sir

I have the honour to send you today a copy of the Athenæum literary journal, in which is contained the Memoir on Photogenic Drawing, <1> which I read to the Royal Society of London, on the 31st January. You will see, on reading it, that my invention bears an analogy to that of M. Daguerre <2> at Paris; but I have known and practised this art for five years –

Vielleicht hätten Sie die Güte, einige Auszüge davon in Deutscher Sprache übersetzen zu lassen, oder der Baierischen Akademie ein Nachricht davon geben –

Diese von mir gemachte kleine Entdeckung wird den Naturforschern und vorzuglich den Botanikern vortheilhaft seyn – Die Möglichkeit die kleinste Gegenstände mit dem Solar-Mikroskop genau zeichnen zu können, wird diese Methode den Liebhabern der Natur besonders empfehlen.

Erlauben Sie, das ich mich mit treuen Herzen aber in schlechten Deutsch, unterzeichne Ihr ergebenster Diener
Henry Fox Talbot


Translation:

von Martius

London, 44 Queen Ann Street
9 February 1839

My Dear Sir

I have the honour to send you today a copy of the Athenæum literary journal, in which is contained the Memoir on Photogenic Drawing, which I read to the Royal Society of London on the 31st January. You will see on reading it, that my invention bears an analogy to that of M. Daguerre at Paris; but I have known and practised this art for five years –

Perhaps you would have the goodness to cause some excerpts of it to be translated into the German language, or to inform the Bavarian Academy of it.

This small discovery of mine will be advantageous to scientists and in particular to botanists – The possibility of being able, with the Solar-Microscope, to draw exactly the smallest objects, will especially recommend this method to lovers of Nature.

Permit me, with a faithful heart but bad German, to sign myself Your most humble Servant
Henry Fox Talbot


Notes:

1. WHFT, ‘Photogenic Drawing: Some Account of the Art of Photogenic Drawing, or the Process by which Natural Objects may be made to delineate themselves without the aid of the Artist’s Pencil’, The Athenæum (London), no. 589, 9 February 1839, p. 114–117.

2. Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre (1787–1851), French artist, showman & inventor.