William Henry Fox Talbot was a British scientist, inventor, and photography pioneer who invented the salted paper and calotype processes, precursors to photographic processes of the later 19th and 20th centuries. His work in the 1840s on photomechanical reproduction led to the creation of the photoglyphic engraving process, the precursor to photogravure.
Background
William Henry Fox Talbot was born on February 11, 1800, in Melbury Abbas, Wiltshire, United Kingdom. He was the only child of William Davenport Talbot, of Lacock Abbey, near Chippenham, Wiltshire, and of Lady Elisabeth Fox Strangways, daughter of the 2nd Earl of Ilchester.
Education
His governess was Agnes Porter who had also educated his mother. William Talbot was educated at Rottingdean, Harrow School and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was awarded the Porson Prize in Classics in 1820, and graduated as a twelfth wrangler in 1821.
Career
As a historian, William Talbot deciphered Assyrian inscriptions and published papers in the journals of the Royal Society of Literature and the Society of Biblical Archaeology in 1854, 1857, 1860, and 1864. Along with Sir Henry Rawlinson and Dr. Edward Hincks, he was a pioneer in deciphering cuneiform inscriptions from Ninevah.
Sometimes called "the father of photography," William Talbot invented the negative/positive process, devised a photogenic drawing process, and invented the calotype (also known as the talbotype) in 1840. He produced the earliest negative (one-inch square) in 1835 and published the first major book with photographic illustrations in 1844. William Talbot also discovered a method for taking instantaneous pictures in 1851, invented a photoengraving process in 1852 and created a "traveller's" the camera in 1854 (which combined the camera and two tanks, one for sensitizing wet plates and the other for developing prints).
William Talbot used photogenic drawings, calotypes (talbotypes), and photoglyphic engravings to capture scenes in and around his home, Lacock Abbey, and environs. Much of his work consisted of simple documents of nineteenth-century life, although the composition and arrangement of some of them go beyond factual records. Especially notable are his calotypes of chess players and of the construction of Nelson's column in Trafalgar Square. He also used photograms and photomicrographs to record botanical specimens, including enlargements of insect wings.
Politics
Henry Fox Talbot was active in politics, being a moderate Reformer who generally supported the Whig Ministers. He served as Member of Parliament for Chippenham between 1832 and 1835 when he retired from Parliament. He also held the office of High Sheriff of Wiltshire in 1840.
Membership
Henry Fox Talbot became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1832. He belonged to the Royal Astronomical Society since 1822 and was a member of its council in 1836.
Personality
While engaged in his scientific researches, Henry Fox Talbot devoted much time to archaeology. He had a 20-year involvement in the field of Assyriology, the study of the history, archaeology, and culture of Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq). With Henry Rawlinson and Edward Hincks, he shares the honour of having been one of the first decipherers of the cuneiform inscriptions of Nineveh. He published Hermes, or Classical and Antiquarian Researches (1838-1839), and Illustrations of the Antiquity of the Book of Genesis (1839). He was also the author of English Etymologies (1846).