History of Science Museum: Collection Database Search

Exhibition Label 2005

PHOTOGENIC DRAWING by W. H. Fox Talbot, March 1839 - contact print of a spray of heather Erica mutabilis, an experiment on unusually thick paper; it is typical of the colour and density resulting from Talbot's early preference for fixing with common salt solution, in marked contrast to Herschel's clean and clear images using hypo

Other narratives:

• Catalogue Entry 1989
• Herschel's Talbots
• Photogenic Drawings
• Herschel's Photographic Experiments: General Description and Outline

Related Objects:

• Inventory No. 49660, "Photograph (Experimental Photogenic Drawing) of Heather (Erica Mutabilis), by W. H. Fox Talbot, from the Photographic Experiments of Sir John Herschel, March 1839" [1928-71], Talbot, William Henry Fox, Herschel, Sir John Frederick Will