Trafalgar Square, London, during the Erection of the Nelson Column
William Henry Fox Talbot
British, 1800–1877
c. 1844
A salted-paper print made from William Henry Fox Talbot’s calotype negative that records the erection of Nelson’s Column as both a documentary moment and a demonstration of early photographic technique.
The image arrests you with the swollen stone base of the column wrapped in timber scaffolding in the foreground, a ragged fence plastered with posters below, and the soft, grainy silhouette of St Martin‑in‑the‑Fields set back in pale, atmospheric tones.
As an early negative-to-positive photograph by one of photography’s inventors, it shows how the calotype made reproducible images of architecture and urban life possible, helping to establish photography’s role in documentation and visual culture.
Medium
Salted paper print from a calotype
Dimensions
6 11/16 × 8 1/4" (17 × 21 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of Warner Communications, Inc.
Accession
531.1981
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
