The archive of the pioneer of photography, William Henry Fox Talbot, has been bought by the renowned Bodleian Library in Oxford.
The archive also sheds light on his personal life, his role managing his estate at Lacock and his life as an MP.
A museum documenting his life and the invention of photography is open to the public in Lacock Abbey. Museum curator Roger Watson praised the purchase of the private collection and said: “I think it was essential that it returned to the UK.”
Bodleian Library spent two years raising the money to buy the collection from a private owner, who lives abroad.
On Sunday the library announced it had secured the final funding of the £2.25m needed to purchase it.
Fox Talbot died in 1877 and is famous for taking the first negative out a window at his home in Lacock Abbey in 1835.
The Bodleian Library plans to run a series of public events including a major exhibition in 2017.
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