Inventor, scientist, scholar, and
member of Parliament, William Henry Fox Talbot is best known as the
"Father of Photography." Not satisfied with the results of sketching
from a camera Iucida, Talbot began experiments in 1834 to permanently
fix an image to paper. His efforts resulted in photogenic drawings, the first
of many photographic inventions to follow.

Although Talbot devised many photographic
innovations, including photoengraving in 1852 and the "traveller's camera"
in 1854, his most significant invention was the negative/positive process. He
produced the earliest paper negative in 1835, which led to the calotype, also
known as the talbotype, patented in 1841. Talbot waited until the announcement
of Daguerre's invention in 1839 to lecture on his own experiments and to
exhibit his photographs at the prestigious Royal Society. Although the unique direct-positive
daguerreotype enjoyed greater initial popularity, Talbot's discovery could
duplicate prints from a single negative, and proved to be the foundation for
modern photographic processes.

By 1843 Talbot was sufficiently
confident of his process to produce prints for publication and sale. He
appointed his assistant Nicolaas Henneman (Dutch, 1813-1898) as manager of the
printing works. Henneman converted a former school in Reading into the studio
and printing plant and started operations in 1843. In 1844 they produced Tbe
Pencil of Nature, the first major publication with original photographic
illustrations tipped into the book.

Talbot presumably took Portrait
of Nicolaas Henneman around the same time as the frequently reproduced
commemorative portrait, Henneman Holding a Copy of "1be Pencil of
Nature." No vintage prints of Portrait of Nicolaas Henneman are
known to exist, but this salt print was made from the original negative belonging
to the Fox Talbot Museum and Gallery, Lacock Abbey, England.