You’ve seen the photo. On the cover of Led Zeppelin’s masterful blockbuster Led Zeppelin IV — released 52 years ago today — a framed image hangs on a wall. The photograph, often mistaken for a painting, depicts a man hunched over, carrying a bundle of wood on his back — a primitive stairway to heaven, if you will. As the story goes, Robert Plant purchased this framed photo from an antique shop near guitarist Jimmy Page’s house in Pangbourne, Berkshire, but for years, the identity of the man in the picture remained a mystery. Not anymore!

As The Guardian reports, Brian Edwards, a visiting research fellow with the regional history center at the University of the West of England, discovered the image in a photo album at the Wiltshire Museum while expanding on research for an exhibition he helped to curate there in 2021. The album is titled Reminiscences Of A Visit To Shaftesbury. Whitsuntide 1892. A Present To Auntie From Ernest. In the album, the photo is captioned, “A Wiltshire thatcher.” Further research revealed the thatcher’s name to be Lot Long, who was born in Mere in 1823 and died in 1893. At the time of the photo, he was a widower living in a cottage on Shaftesbury Road.

“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,” Edwards told The Guardian.