A man who appears on the iconic album cover of Led Zeppelin IV has been identified as a 19th century thatcher. The photograph is most likely of Lot Long, who was captured by Ernest Farmer in Wiltshire. Brian Edwards, from the University of the West of England (UWE), discovered the image when searching through a photo album for other research. A fan of the British rock band, Edwards recognised the man with the sticks and was excited by the “revelation”.
Previously thought to be a photograph of a painting, the image featured on the album cover is actually a colourised photograph, the original of which is now missing. Led Zeppelin IV has sold more than 37 million copies worldwide since its 1971 release and includes the hit Stairway to Heaven.
Edwards worked out that the photographer was Farmer, thanks only to the name “Ernest” inside the album. After discovering hundreds of Victorian photographers called Ernest, he suspected the picture was taken by a chemist, searching for professionals in the field near where the photograph was taken. He found a chemist in Salisbury who had a son called Ernest Farmer and discovered his handwriting online. Farmer went on to become head of the school of photography at the Polytechnic Regent Street, now the University of Westminster.
Wiltshire Museum plans to include the photograph in an exhibition next year called The Wiltshire Thatcher: a Photographic Journey through Victorian Wessex, which will celebrate Farmer’s work and “show how [he] captured the spirit of people, villages and landscapes of Wiltshire and Dorset that were so much of a contrast to his life in London”
Read the full article from The BBC here: Read More