[Oxford, Opposite the Angel Inn]

Even though he was a Cambridge man, William Henry Fox Talbot made many more trips to Oxford to photograph, the newly opened railway lines making this a much easier journey. He was rewarded with a wealth of subjects in this ancient and picturesque city. In the absence of any dating by him, it is impossible to know when this particular image was made. However, the very rare pink color of the print points toward an early date, most likely indicating a time when his chemistry was experimental. The negative and several other copies of the picture survive, but none are marked; this and one other print are on watermarked “J Whatman 1839” paper. Sir David Brewster preserved this example in his album, but whether he took note of its extraordinary color or was more intrigued by its precise rendering of the famous English city is unknown.

Talbot’s subject here was a coffeehouse. Just to the left of his framing is the path to St. Peter’s in the East and, past that, Queen’s College. The building in which Talbot placed his camera, the Angel Inn, was directly across the High Street and was one of the many coaching establishments on the road to London. The coffeehouse retains its original function to this day (with a baffling offering of variations on the basic drink), but the coaching houses were less adapted to change. The Angel Inn became the shop of Frank Cooper, the famous marmalade maker, and has since been a succession of shops catering to the booming tourist trade in Oxford.

Larry Schaaf, William Henry Fox Talbot, In Focus: Photographs from the J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2002), 46. ©2002 J. Paul Getty Trust.