text: Talbot was very keen on applying the calotype method to recording natural phenomena, such as plants for example, as well as buildings and landscapes. The calotype technique was offered free by Talbot for scientific and amateur use. He was aware that the visible spectrum comprised a very small part of what we now know as electromagnetic radiation, and that powerful and invisible light beyond the violet was capable of inducing chemical effects, a type of radiation we now call ultra-violet radiation.
  Other activities
  Talbot was active in politics, being a moderate Reformer who generally supported the Whig Ministers. He served as member of parliament for Chippenham between 1832 and 1835 when he retired from parliament. He also held the office of High Sheriff of Wiltshire in 1840.
  While engaged in his scientific researches, Talbot devoted much time to archaeology. He had a 20-year involvement in the field of Assyriology, the study of the history, archaeology and culture of Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq). With Henry Rawlinson and Edward Hincks he shares the honour of having been one of the first decipherers of the cuneiform inscriptions of Nineveh.  He published Hermes, or Classical and Antiquarian Researches (1838–39), and Illustrations of the Antiquity of the Book of Genesis (1839). He was also the author of English Etymologies (1846).
  Selected works
  Hermes, or Classical and Antiquarian Researches (1838–39)
  Illustrations of the Antiquity of the Book of Genesis (1839)
  The Pencil of Nature (1844–46)
  Sun pictures in Scotland (1845)
  Loch Katrine (c. 1845) Salt print from calotype negative | 8x9 in. Birmingham Museum of Art
  English Etymologies (1846)
  Posthumous recognition
  In 1966 Talbot was inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum.