Led Zeppelin's fourth album was released on November 8, 1971. The cover features a framed picture of a man carrying a bundle of hazel, hung on a dilapidated wall. The original story was that it was an oil painting Robert Plant bought in an antique store. But it was a hand-tinted photograph, and the original photograph has been found.
Researcher Brian Edwards found the photograph while he was looking for early images of Stonehenge in 2021. It was in an album labeled “Reminiscences of a visit to Shaftesbury. Whitsuntide 1892. A present to Auntie from Ernest.” The man in the picture captioned “A Wiltshire thatcher” is believed to be Lot Long, who lived in the village of Mere and died in 1893. The photographer was Ernest Howard Farmer. The Wiltshire Museum, which now owns the photograph, has included it in an exhibition of Farmer's photographs called Wiltshire Thatcher: a photographic journey through Victorian Wessex scheduled for next spring. Read the story of how the photo came to light at the Guardian.
(Image credit: Wiltshire Museum)