William Henry Fox Talbot

William Henry Fox Talbot
William Henry Fox Talbot, by John Moffat, 1864.
Born	(1800-02-11)11 February 1800 Melbury, Dorset, England
Died	17 September 1877(1877-09-17) (aged 77) Lacock, Wiltshire, England
Occupation	scientist and inventor
Known for	pioneering photography
Spouse(s)	Constance Talbot
Children	Ela (1835–1893) Rosamond (1837–1906) Matilda (1839–1927) Charles (1842–1916)
Parent(s)	William Davenport Talbot Elisabeth Fox Strangways
Awards	Royal Medal (1838) Rumford Medal (1842)

William Henry Fox Talbot (11 February 1800 – 17 September 1877) 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. He was the holder of a controversial patent which affected the early development of commercial photography in Britain. He was also a noted photographer who contributed to the development of photography as an artistic medium. He published The Pencil of Nature (1844–46), which was illustrated with original salted paper prints from his calotype negatives, and made some important early photographs of Oxford, Paris, Reading, and York.

Talbot 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. 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 twelfth wrangler in 1821. From 1822 to 1872, he communicated papers to the Royal Society, many of them on mathematical subjects. At an early period, he began optical researches, which later bore fruit in connection with photography. To the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal in 1826 he contributed a paper on "Some Experiments on Coloured Flame"; to the Quarterly Journal of Science in 1827 a paper on "Monochromatic Light"; and to the Philosophical Magazine papers on chemical subjects, including one on "Chemical Changes of Color."