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Document number: 04197
Date: 22 Feb 1841
Dating: '41' added after the day in WHFT's hand
Recipient: TALBOT William Henry Fox
Author: HELLYER William Varlo
Collection: British Library, London, Manuscripts - Fox Talbot Collection
Collection number historic: LA41-7
Last updated: 26th April 2010

Roy. Inst. <1>
February 22

Sir

Your recent communication to the Athenaeum, on the new form of Photogenic drawing,<2> has excited a considerable degree of curiosity among the members of the Institution, and I beg to inquire, if it would suite [sic] your convenience, to allow some specimens of it, to be laid on the Library Table on Friday Evening next the 26th instant.<3>

I remain Sir Your faithful Servant
W. Varlo Hellyer
V. P. Sec.


Notes:

1. Royal Institution, London.

2. Hellyer was mistaken in remembering The Athenĉum; On 5 Feburary, WHFT had sent a letter to The Literary Gazette. It was promptly published under the title of "Calotype (photogenic) drawing" in no. 1256, 13 February 1841, p. 108. See Doc. No: 04191.

3. There was a certain poetry to this, for the first ever public announcement and display of WHFT's photogenic drawings had been a library exhibit after Michael Faraday's customary Friday lecture on 25 January 1839.