The Mystery of the Led Zeppelin IV cover photo is solved by a Wiltshire Researcher

A Wiltshire academic has solved the puzzle of who the man on the cover of ‘Led Zeppelin IV’ is. The album, which came out in 1971, features a picture of an old man with a beard, a walking stick, and a bundle of straw on his back. The man is Lot Long, a thatcher from Mere, Wiltshire, who lived from 1823 to 1893. The photo was taken in the late 1800s. Brian Edwards, a visiting research fellow at the University of the West of England, found the original photo while preparing an exhibition at the Wiltshire Museum. He was looking for old photos of Stonehenge when he saw the image that he recognized from the album. The Guardian reports that Edwards said he hoped that the discovery would please and entertain the band members, Robert, Jimmy and John Paul. The album, which was released 52 years ago today (November 8), has sold over 37 million copies worldwide and was ranked as the 106th greatest album of all time by NME in 2013.

The man in the photo had been unknown since the album’s release. The band’s singer Robert Plant is thought to have bought the photo from an antique shop near guitarist Jimmy Page’s house in Pangbourne, Berkshire. Lot Long, also known as Lot Longyear, was a widower when the photo was taken, living in a cottage in Shaftesbury Road, Mere. The photo was in an album called ‘Reminiscences of a visit to Shaftesbury. Whitsuntide 1892. A present to Auntie from Ernest’. The photographer was Ernest Howard Farmer (1856-1944). The album includes the legendary song ‘Stairway to Heaven’, which Plant performed last month (October 21) for the first time in 16 years. He was persuaded to play the song after a “six-figure” donation was made for the charity show in Oxfordshire.