John Herschel’s earliest photographic trials in 1839

Abstract: John Herschel’s earliest photographic trials date to 29 January 1839. He photographed his father’s 40-foot telescope and three of these images are featured at the Bodleian. From the onset of his experiments he was fascinated with how to render polychromy through chemicals. One of his strategies involved using “vegetable juices” and photosynthesis to induce photographic images. This paper will profile Herschel’s photographic experiments and discuss the “vegetable photographs” as fundamentals in the history of colour photography.