Research: The 1846 Art Union Photographs Project

[Michael Pritchard]

In 1846 William Henry Fox Talbot provided probably over 6000 original Talbotype images to the Art Union journal in a promotional effort which today is largely overlooked.  The images were provided to popularise his photographic method and the publication was the first journal in the world to include photographs.   Due largely to the haste of production, today, the images are often badly faded and this has contributed to the poor reputation of the feat.

The Project seeks to undertake a census of extant copies of the 1846 Art Union and Calotype images. Read more about it and download the census/information form here: http://www.1846artunion.org/

[David McGreevy]

This is a fantastic project, I have always wondered how many copies survive, and which images were used.

Bravo, Ian,  I look forward to seeing a growing number of responses and images.

Thanks for doing this!

David McGreevy