1376
TAFT, ROBERT
made a major contribution to Western American cultural
history with his Artists and Illustrators of the Old West
(1955). The extensive collection of Taft’s papers at the
Kansas State Historical Society is a major resource
for further understanding of this often underestimated
photo-historian.
François Brunet
TALBOT, WILLIAM HENRY FOX
(1800–1877)
William Henry Fox Talbot, photographic inventor,
mathematician, etymologist, Assyriologist, and botanist,
was born 11th February 1800 at Melbury in Dorset,
the home of his maternal grandfather, Henry Thomas
Fox-Strangways, the 2nd Earl of Ilchester. His father,
William Davenport Talbot (1764–1800), was a Captain
in the 88th Foot Regiment. His mother, Lady Elisabeth
Theresa (née Fox Strangways) (1773–1846) was the
daughter of the 2nd Earl of Ilchester and his fi rst wife
Mary Theresa.
When Talbot was fi ve months old his father died leav-
ing him the Lacock Abbey estate and over £30,000 in
debt. In order to pay back these debts, Lacock Abbey had
been let out to the Countess of Shrewsbury starting in
1795, and after her death in 1810 to John Rock Grosset,
the local Member of Parliament. Talbot spent his youth
living in a variety of relative’s homes or away at board-
ing school. It wasn’t until Talbot reached the age of 27
that he fi nally took possession of the Abbey and began
to make it his home. In 1804, Talbot’s mother married
Captain Charles Feilding (later Rear Admiral). His atten-
tion both to the Lacock estate and to his stepson brought
stability to both. Talbot’s mother and Feilding had two
daughters, Caroline Augusta (1808–1881, later Lady Mt
Edgcumbe), and Henrietta Horatia Maria (1810–1851,
later Henrietta Gaisford), who both showered affection
on Talbot and infl uenced him with their artistic interests
and talents.
Education
Talbot’s earliest educational experiences were, certainly,
at his mother’s knee. Her knowledge of languages and
the essentials of the classics, frequently presented in the
form of games, was the foundation of Talbot’s tutelage.
Long periods during his childhood spent at Penrice, his
aunt’s home in the Welsh countryside, collecting shells,
stones and plants initiated Talbot’s life-long interest in
the natural sciences, especially botany. His mother and
stepfather’s frequent trips on the continent also gave
the young Talbot a broader view of life and put him in
contact with important people.
From the age of eight, Talbot was a boarding student
of the Reverend Thomas Hooker’s school at Rottingdean
in Sussex. Here he expanded his knowledge of Latin and
French while reading and translating literary works, also
continuing his interest in botany.
From age 11, Talbot attended Harrow, living in the
Head Master’s House under the watchful eye of the
Reverend George Butler, a man he highly respected.
This seemed a most satisfactory time for Talbot who
made many friends, took part in sports and, with his
friend Walter Calverley Trevelyan, went in search of
botanical specimens culminating in a handwritten book
on the ‘Flora of Harrow.’
After leaving Harrow at the top of his class, but
still too young to enter university, Talbot was tutored
fi rst by the Reverend Theophilus Barnes at Castleford,
Yorkshire, and second by the Reverend Thomas Kaye
Bonney at Normanton in Rutlandshire.
Talbot’s years at Trinity College Cambridge
(1817–1821) were centred on a passionate interest in
mathematics, which, at that time, was seen as one of
the consuming interests of Cambridge itself. In order to
get a fi rst class BA, a student had to sit for the ‘Tripos,’
then the most demanding and prestigious examinations
in the country. Talbot received his fi rst class BA and was
named 12th Wrangler, disappointing his mother who
had hoped he would be named Senior Wrangler. Talbot
proceeded MA in 1825.
Far from excelling only in mathematics, Talbot also re-
ceived the Porson prize for his Greek Iambic translation of
Macbeth, and the second Chancellor’s Classical Medal.Family Life
In December 1832, Talbot married Constance Mundy of
Markeaton Hall in Derby. Their marriage took place at
All Souls Church in Langham Place, London. They had
four children: Ela Theresa (dsp), Rosamond Constance
(dsp), Charles Henry (dsp) and Matilda Caroline who
married John Gilchrist Clark of Scotland.First Experiments
In the fi rst fascicle of Talbot’s Pencil of Nature pub-
lished in 1844, he writes of the epiphany that led him
to the discovery of photography. In the opening pages
he relates:
One of the fi rst days of the month of October 1833, I was
amusing myself on the lovely shores of the Lake of Como,
in Italy, taking sketches with Wollaston’s Camera Lucida,
or rather I should say, attempting to take them: but with
the smallest possible amount of success. For when the
eye was removed from the prism—in which all looked
beautiful—I found that the faithless pencil had only left
traces on the paper melancholy to behold.
He considered using the camera obscura for drawing,
as he had on earlier trips to the continent, but this too