William Henry Fox Talbot 'Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire', from The Pencil of Nature (Longmans, 1844-46)
C.119.g.1 15.5x20.5 cm

Photogenic drawing

Lacock Abbey was the first building 'that was ever known to have drawn its own picture', wrote William Henry Fox Talbot in The Pencil of Nature, the first published photographically illustrated book. Talbot was one of the most influential inventors of photography; his two-step method was particularly suitable for book illustration because multiple copies of photographs could be produced from one negative.