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Article: Fox Talbot's Botanic Garden: W.H. Fox Talbot's early experiments with photography at Lacock Abbey were in part prompted by his passion for botany, as Katie Fretwell explains.(Biography)
- Article from:
- Apollo
- Article date:
- April 1, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 Apollo Magazine Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Wlliam Henry Fox Talbot (1800-77), a brilliant man of many talents (Fig. 1), is best known as one of the pioneers of photography, and, above all, for his invention of the calotype--or negative-positive--process in 1840. (1) What is less well known is that it was his interest in plants, and the search for an improved method of recording them, that led to his ground-breaking discovery. At his home at Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire, he developed and stocked the Botanic Garden specifically in order to pursue his own studies. (2)
[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]
Lacock Abbey, built as a nunnery in the thirteenth century, survives largely intact despite several campaigns of ...