Who’s The Man On Cover of Led Zeppelin 4? We Know!

Who's that guy on the cover of Led Zeppelin 4?

In case you've been wondering for the past 52 years who the man on the cover of Led Zeppelin's fourth album is, we now know.

Robert Plant discovered the black and white image in an antique shop in Reading, England, and it was colorized for the cover.

In 2021, University historian Brian Edwards found another print of the same picture while studying the pictorial history of England's Wiltshire County. Upon further investigation, he discovered that the handwriting on both prints -- his and Plant's -- match, leading him to conclude that it was taken around 1892 by Ernest Howard Farmer, who captioned it “A Wiltshire thatcher.”

This led the Wiltshire Museum to identify the man as Lot Long, a roofer who was a widower living in the town of Mere.

Edwards says, “I really hope the discovery of this Victorian photograph pleases and entertains Robert, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones.”

The photo will be part of a 2024 exhibit at the museum, The Wiltshire Thatcher: A Photographic Journey Through Victorian Wessex.

Museum director David Dawson says, "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.”

Though the band has yet to comment on this discovery, Page previously said the use of the photo on the album was intended to bring out a city/country dichotomy that had initially surfaced on Led Zeppelin 3, and as a reminder that people should look after the Earth.

The album cover was among the 10 chosen by the Royal Mail for a set of "Classic Album Cover" postage stamps in January 2010.

BTW - If you need one more Led Zeppelin piece of info...how about the time they met Elvis?