LANGTON, Robert (1825-1900) — Manchester
Artist & wood-engraver; printer. Engraved James Nasmyth’s map of the moon 1854, the image transferred to the engraver’s wooden block in a newly invented method by means of photography (see below); the pictorial title-page to Frank H. Spenser, ‘Handbook to the tellurium’ 1879, illustrating a tellurium. Also contributed to ‘The Art-Treasures examiner : a pictorial, critical, and historical record of the Art-Treasures Exhibition, at Manchester’ 1857; engraved the illustrations and published Robert Southey, ‘The battle of Blenheim’ 1864. He also published “two books on the early life of Dickens” (Ramsbottom Observer, 21 Sep 1900) — ‘Charles Dickens and Rochester’ (1880) and ‘The childhood and youth of Charles Dickens’ (1883).
Born at Gravesend, Kent, 30 Nov 1825, the son of David Elland Langton, a butcher and later a dairyman, and his wife Mary. Baptised 19 Nov 1826 at St. Mary, Stratford-le-Bow, London. Settled in Manchester at the age of twenty-four, working originally at the Patent Office in Cross Street. He soon made a name as an artist, and his engravings appear in a large number of illustrated books. Examples of his work were published in the Art Journal 1854. He appears to have been the first wood-engraver successfully to fix an image on a wooden block using photography, experimenting over a period of four years to achieve satisfactory results — his work described and eulogised at length in the Manchester Guardian in 1853 (reprinted in the Liverpool Albion, 1 Aug 1853). An example was featured at the Caxton Exhibition of 1877, claiming it as “the earliest invention of photography on wood”. An 1866 letter and three proofs of an engraving of a haymaker survive in the Museum of English Rural Life. He married Harriette Charity (1832?-1889), with whom he had several children, at Oakham, Rutland, 14 Sep 1850. A widower in 1891, he was living with an unmarried daughter. He died at his home at Bexley, Kent, 13 Sep 1900 and was buried at St. Mary the Virgin, Bexley, 17 Sep 1900. Probate on effects of £3,141.12s.4d. was granted to three of his children 31 Oct 1900. A scrap-book containing over 400 proof engravings was presented by Langton to Chetham’s Library in 1885. His son, Robert Bennet Langton (1854-1934), was also a wood-engraver.
High Street, Gravesend (home) — 1841
49 Preston Street, Hulme (home) — 1851-1853
17 Cross Street, Market Street, Manchester — 1850-1866
Congleton Road, Fulshaw (home) — 1871
Albert Chambers, 49 Hanging Ditch, Manchester — 1873-1886
Hampden House, Patricroft (home) — 1882-1883
7 Lodge Avenue, Urmston (home) — 1886-1891
Church Cottage, Bexley, Kent — 1900
BM. BNA. Census 1841-1891. Engen (1985). Fincham. LHD. NA.