Blogs

The Herschel Society has organised a one day conference devoted to Sir John Herschel, William Henry Fox Talbot and their achievements and contemporary legacy. Three panels will look at Herschel,Talbot and their circle; photography origins and acceptance 1834-1851, and historic photographic processes and contemporary practice, each with respected speakers. The event will be held at Bath's Royal Literary and Scientific Institution. Speakers include: Andy Cochrane, Kelley Wilder, Sara Stevenson, Anne-Lou Buzot; Rose Teanby, Anthony Hamber, Sian Prosser; Jo Gane, Kristina Chan and Caroline Douglas.

Full titles, synopsis and speaker biographies will be available to registrants.  

The conference coincides with an exhibition on Herschel and Talbot at the Herschel Museum of Astronomy and No 1 Royal Crescent opening in September. Details to follow.

Early British Photography and its Contemporary Legacy
12 September 2026, 0945-1730
Bath: BRLSI, 16 Queen Square, and online
See the fuull programme and book here

Image: Nevil Story-Maskelyne, Lansdowne Crescent, Bath, 1847; The British Library, gift of Janet and Petronella Burnett-Brown, 1 March 2006. 

BBC Radio Berkshire have a 10 minute programme on Talbot's Reading printing establishment and Talbot's place in photographic history. Lorin Bozkurt explores how a humble Reading studio transformed the future of photography. It includes expert comment from Dr Martin Andrews, formerly of Reading University. The programme includes archive recordings which are particularly interesting.  

Secret Berkshire: Discoveries in The Reading Establishment
BBC Radio Berkshire
Listen here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0myv4bg
Readers outside of the UK may find the content inaccessible without a VPN

Following the cyber-attack in October 2023, the British Library's Archives and Manuscript catalogue is back online. For researchers wishing to find the Kodak Historical Collection, Fay Godwin's photographs, and the Talbot collection alongside the wider photographic materials related to South Asia, you can use this link: https://searcharchives.bl.uk/?f%5Bcollection_area_ssi%5D%5B%5D=Visual+Arts

In the last year, we've been focusing on improving access to the Kodak Historical Collection and in particular the Kodak News archive, which spans from the late 19th century through the early 2000s. Since the start of this new project, our cataloguer has prepared approximately 9000 records. These will be made available via the Archives and Manuscript platform in due course.

The new cataloguing of photographic material (negatives, photographic prints, glass plates) specifically looks at the material from the Kodak Research Division of Kodak which was based at Harrow from 1928-2000s - and some of the projects that were developed including Harold Edgerton's 'Kodatron' with Eastman Kodak in 1939 and Kodak's involvement with Spacelab, a resuable laboratory developed by the European Space Agency (ESA). 

For access and enquiries, email us at apac-prints@bl.uk.

Top image: An unidentified woman who was employed in the Kodak Research Division in the 1950s, British Library, Kodak A3146/27(8)​.