Copy of Botanical Engraving of "Celtis" 1840 - 1845

This is William Henry Fox Talbot’s "Copy of Botanical Engraving of 'Celtis,'" an early photographic print on paper. Talbot invented the calotype process, a way of making a negative and then using it to produce multiple positive prints. The process is really the point here. Before photography, botanical illustration required skilled labor, with etchers painstakingly recreating details from nature. Here, the hand is largely removed; the image impresses itself, chemically. The result has a directness that earlier reproductive technologies lacked. But don't forget, this is a "copy" of an engraving. Talbot wasn’t quite ready to replace skilled labor altogether. Instead, he used his new process to reproduce an image already made by hand. It’s an interesting early moment of transition, where the value of mechanical reproduction is being tested.