Plant formerly located in Joliet, Illinois - ca. 1920.
Portraits of George Langford, Sr. throughout his adult life.
All the images below were scanned from originals.
There's more here.
| George Langford, Sr. at
Yale University. Below: Freshman stroke at the dock, 1895, after losing a race.  |
Senior -
Sheffield Scientific School, 1897.
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At left: George
Langford, Sr., McKenna
Process Company Engineer, amputee and father of two, just back from England, 1905. Below: George, Sr., with the huge Minooka Mastadon tusk, 1921.  |
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George Langford,
Sr., cracking open a nodule at the spoil heaps of the coal strip mines
in Will County, Illinois, in 1938. He was joined in this venture
by George, Jr., who helped out by carrying his share of the nodules in
the five-gallon pails. George, Sr., with only one arm, carried
his own share of the nodules in the postman's leather bags in the
foreground. It was easier to bring the nodules to a convenient
processing place than carrying them all the way back to Joliet before
opening them. George, Sr., was an avid photographer throughout his adult life. He even left an important collection of photographs of Yale University campus life at the Yale Library. The camera case is open in the right foreground. |
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After closing
the McKenna
Process Company for good in 1946, George Langford, Sr., was
appointed
Curator of Plant Fossils at the Field Museum in Chicago,
Illinois. He is shown here in 1959, contemplating his manuscript
of the second of two books on the Mazon Creek fossils, found as
shown above, which were published by the Earth Science Club of Northern
Illinois (ESCONI) in 1958 and in 1963. The first is The Wilmington Coal Flora from a Pennsylvanian Deposit in Will County, Illinois; and the second is The Wilmington Coal Fauna and Additions to the Wilmington Coal Flora from a Pennsylvanian Deposit in Will County, Illinois. There is an extensive pictorial catalog of the Mazon Creek fossils preserved at the Illinois State Museum. |
The George Langfords, Junior and
Senior, 1959.  |
George
Langford, Sr.
with George, III's mother, Dr. Maria A. Langford and George, Jr. 1963. |
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This 1963
setting at my grandparent's LaSalle Street apartment in Chicago,
Illinois, was the last time I saw George, Sr. alive. The
paintings on the walls were all by Sydney Holmes Langford, George,
III's grandmother, seated at the right. Mr. & Mrs. George
Langford, Jr. are sitting on the couch. Drawing below by George Langford, Sr.:  |