William Henry Fox Talbot (11 February 180017 September 1877) was a British scientist, inventor and photography pioneer who invented the
salted paper and
calotype processes, precursors to photographic processes of the later 19th and 20th centuries. His work in the 1840s on photomechanical reproduction led to the creation of the photoglyphic engraving process, the precursor to
photogravure. He was the holder of a controversial patent which impacted the early development of commercial photography in Britain. He was also a noted photographer who contributed to the development of photography as an artistic medium. He published
The Pencil of Nature (1844–46), which was illustrated with original salted paper prints from his calotype
negatives, and made some important
early photographs of Oxford, Paris, Reading, and York.