Isidore Justin Séverin Taylor was closely associated with the development of French theater, a noted traveler and author, and a philanthropist. Originally destined for a military career, the young man neglected this in favor of traveling about Europe and later the Near East. Among the fruits of his travels was a series of books on the French regions, Voyages pittoresques et romantiques dans l’ancienne France (1820–63), the nearly 7000 lithographs in which were the first to catalogue the French artistic patrimony. Voyages pittoresques was also an early adopter of Poitevin’s photolithographic process.