Led Zeppelin's IV album cover is iconic, yet has been shrouded in some mystery for more than half a century.
The unnamed studio album — which features tracks such as Stairway to Heaven — was released on this day (November 8) in 1971 and is instantly recognisable by the figure on the front.
Part of the album cover depicts a bearded man hunched over with a huge bundle of wood on his back.
Now, researchers have finally tracked down the original image and determined that the mystery album star is a Wiltshire thatcher.
The figure is thought to be named Lot Long, a thatcher who was born in 1823 in Mere and photographed later in life while working. Records reveal that Long died in 1893, yet his identity was iconised decades after his death when the Led Zeppelin album was released.
Before the album's debut in the 70s, it was believed that Zeppelin singer Robert Plant had stumbled upon the coloured copy of the image in a Berkshire antique shop.
The original, however, had remained shrouded in mystery until now.
Brian Edwards, a researcher from the University of the West of England (UWE), was looking through an album when he came across the iconic image.
Luckily, Edwards isn't just a researcher, but he's also a Zeppelin fan. While others may have flicked past the image, he instantly knew its historic and musical importancealbu.
Edwards told BBC Radio Wiltshire: "I instantly recognised the man with the sticks — he's often called the stick man."
The image was found in a Victorian photo album that contained more than 100 detailed images of streets, houses and workers from a bygone era across Wiltshire, Dorset and Somerset.
The face of Lot Long - as seen on the cover of Led Zeppelin IV, the original is now in @WiltshireMuseum pic.twitter.com/ksTe80xuwv
— Tim Daw (@TimothyDaw) November 8, 2023
The album is named "Reminiscences of a visit to Shaftesbury. Whitsuntide 1892. A present to Auntie from Ernest".
The Wiltshire Museum, which currently houses the famed image, says the photograph forms part of a collection taken by Ernest Howard Farmer.
The photographer was in charge of the School of Photography at Polytechnic Regent Street, which would eventually become part of the University of Westminster.
His work is currently being exhibited at the Wiltshire Museum, where Zeppelin fans can catch a glimpse of the original image behind the album.
The museum's director, David Dawson, said: “We will show how Farmer captured the spirit of people, villages and landscapes of Wiltshire and Dorset that were so much of a contrast to his life in London. It is fascinating to see how this theme of rural and urban contrasts was developed by Led Zeppelin and became the focus for this iconic album cover 70 years later.”
The band has sold 37 million copies worldwide of its fourth album released 52 years ago.
Edwards said: “Led Zeppelin created the soundtrack that has accompanied me since my teenage years, so I really hope the discovery of this Victorian photograph pleases and entertains Robert, Jimmy, and John Paul.”
