Fifty-two years after the release of Led Zeppelin IV, the flagship album by British group Led Zeppelin, a British researcher has identified the old man bending under the weight of a bundle of twigs on the record’s cover. It would be an ordinary Victorian thatched cottage called Lot Long.
As The Guardian and The New York Times report, it was art history and historiography specialist Brian Edwards of the University of the West of England in Bristol who recognized the original photo while researching the archives of the Wiltshire Museum in Devizes, England.
The original photograph by Ernest Farmer (1856-1944) shows a roofer named Lot Long, who was born in Mere, Wiltshire, in 1823 and died in 1893.
Brian Edwards’ discovery clears up a mystery that has persisted for 52 years. Led Zeppelin fans never really knew where the now iconic image came from, rumor has it it may have been a painting.
The band’s lead singer Robert Plant previously claimed to have discovered a color photograph of the original painting in an antique shop near Jimmy Page’s home in Pangbourne, Berkshire.
The public will be able to view the original photograph in spring 2024 during an exhibition at Wiltshire Museum that brings together several photographs from the Victorian era in the west of England.
Led Zeppelin IV was released on November 8, 1971 and contains timeless hits like Stairway to Heaven. The album has sold more than 37 million copies worldwide.
With information from The Guardian, Pitchfork and New York Times