Gary Saretzky Photo Books
Herschel, Sir John. Herschel at the Cape. Diaries and Correspondence of Sir John Herschel, 1834–1838.
Herschel, Sir John. Herschel at the Cape. Diaries and Correspondence of Sir John Herschel, 1834–1838.
Edited by David S. Evans, Terence J. Deeming, Betty Hall Evans, and Stephen Goldfarb. University of Texas Press, 1969. Hardcover, fine with near fine protected price-clipped dust jacket. 398 pages. Two maps, twenty plates, one frontispiece and thirteen figures. Illustrations include camera lucida sketches by Herschel. Covers period 1834–1838, just before Herschel returned to England from South Africa, where he was involved in astronomy. After his return, he became involved in the early development of photography, along with William Henry Fox Talbot, whom Herschel mentions once in this diary. Among other contributions to photography, Herschel suggested the use of sodium thiosulfate as fixer, invented the cyanotype, and suggested the use of the hunting term snapshot to describe stop action photography.