AFTER setting their sights on the archive of pioneering Victorian photographer William Henry Fox Talbot, staff at the Bodleian Library have finally snapped it up after raising £2.2m.
Fox Talbot, who lived from 1800 to 1877, was one of the greatest all-rounders of the Victorian age, and is considered by many to be the founder of photography.
Some of the first photos taken of Oxford feature in the archive, including one of The Queen’s College in High Street.
The Bodleian has been trying to acquire the archive for several years, but only recently raised enough cash to buy it.
Staff are delighted with the acquisition and are planning to stage a major exhibition in 2017.
Announcing the news at the Photography Oxford Festival, which finished on Sunday, Bodley’s Librarian Richard Ovenden said: “We are so pleased to have reached our fundraising target and are at last able to secure the Fox Talbot archive. We are looking forward to making this fascinating and important resource available to students and the photographic community.”
The Oxford University library received a grant of £1.2m in 2012 towards securing the archive.
After the National Heritage Memorial Fund awarded the library £1.2m, further donations came in from the Art Fund, plus gifts from individuals and charitable trusts.
The final donation came from a legacy, allowing the Bodleian off Broad Street to reach its target of £2.25m.
Backing for the Bodleian came from internationally-renowned artist David Hockney.
And Martin Parr and Hiroshi Sugimoto, two popular photographers, supported the fundraising campaign.
Other supporters included Royal Society president Sir Paul Nurse, Royal Photographic Society president Michael Pritchard, and Prof Martin Kemp, former Professor of Art History at Oxford University.
An image of a peony
After hearing about the Bodleian’s bid to buy the archive, Sir John Venables-Llewelyn, great-great grandson of Fox Talbot, offered to deposit a previously- unknown collection of 42 early photogenic drawings, to supplement the main archive.
These fragile photographs show mostly botanical specimens, as well as Oxford’s Botanic Garden and the Tower at Magdalen College.
The library recently appointed Prof Larry Schaaf as project director for the catalogue.
He is aiming to make more than four decades of research available to the public online, and to invite experts to add to the archive.
A photogenic drawing of a tiger
Apart from the early experiments and photographs of Oxford, the collection also includes glassware and art that Talbot photographed for his ground-breaking publication The Pencil of Nature, the first book illustrated with photographs.
The archive sheds light on Talbot’s family life, his role managing his estate at Lacock, Wiltshire, his life as an MP, and his interests, from science to ancient languages.
The head of a saint from a painting on glass
There are original manuscripts, letters, family diaries, watercolour albums and sketchbooks.
The collection also features an image made by Talbot’s wife in 1839, which could be the earliest photographic image made by a woman.
Several hundred photographs taken by contemporaries and given to Talbot have also been included.
Highlights from the archive could now be put on display in the Bodleian’s new Weston Library in Broad Street at a date to be fixed.
PIONEERING VICTORIAN PHOTOGRAPHER
WILLIAM Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877) was a British scientist and inventor, best known for his invention of photography.
His 1839 announcement of the negative, which could produce multiple prints on paper, defined photography right through to the digital age.
Talbot came from a family with strong diplomatic, social and royal connections and sat briefly as an MP.
He guided his estate of Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire through the social uprisings of the 1830s and the 1840s expansion of the railways.
Married with two daughters, he died aged 77 at Lacock in 1877.
Oxford’s best-known Victorian photographer was Henry Taunt, who took thousands of photos, using glass plates. He died in 1922.
Another Oxford photography pioneer was Sarah Acland, who took up photography in 1891. Some of her photos are stored in the Bodleian.
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