Athenæum Club <1>
Pall. 24. Febr. 1843
My Dear Sir
My friend Sir Henry De La Beche <2> is anxious about your Calotype <3> and wishes for permission to use it for the purpose of taking pictures of Organic remains procured in the Ordnance Geological Survey of Gt Britain to be engraved in the best style for a national work on British Organic remains I am sure you must have heard of the great talents of Sir Henry as a Geologist, if you do not know him personally & will I dare say if my request on his part is not out order readily grant it
I am my Dear Sir most faithfully yours
W Snow Harris
H. Fox Talbot Esqre
FRS. &c &c
Notes:
1. Athenaeum Club, Pall Mall, London: WHFT’s club; a gentleman’s club composed primarily of artists and scientists.
2. Sir Henry Thomas de la Beche (1796–1855), geologist and photographer.
3. The reference here is to the negative process and not to a particular image.