This is Throwback Thursday #319. In these, we look back into the past at ESCONI specifically and Earth Science in general. If you have any contributions, (science, pictures, stories, etc …), please send them to esconi.info@gmail.com. Thanks! email:esconi.info@gmail.com.

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May 26th, 2026 marks George Langford’s 150th birthday! He was born on May 26th, 1876 in Denver, Colorado.

George Langford Sr. is giant in the history of Mazon Creek.  Before Jack Wittry’s books, George’s books were the go-to source of information about Mazon Creek.  George wrote three books about Mazon Creek fossils. The first was published in 1958 and the second in 1963. Unfortunately, the third was published well after his death in the 1990s (Mazon Monday #74).

For more about George, see Mazon Monday #274.

Here is George at Sheffield Scientific School at Yale University in 1897.

He is with the huge tusk of the Minooka Mastodon in 1921.

Cracking Mazon Creek nodules at one of the spoil heaps in Will County, Illinois, in 1938.

In this photo, George is in his office at the Field Museum. He as Curator of Fossil Plants at the Field Museum from 1950 until 1962.

George passed away on June 16th, 1964. The September 1964 edition of the ESCONI newsletter featured a memorial to George.

George Langford

On June 16, 1964, the world of science lost a great man. George Langford metallurgist, archaeologist, paleontologist, paleobotonist -passed away on this day, exactly one year after Esconi Associates published his second manuscript. Not since Leo Lesquereux brought out his “Pennsylvania Flora” in 1870 has there been such a complete study of the Pennsylvanian coal flora in America.

In 1937, at an age when most men would be con-templating retirement, Mr. Langford started to amass a tremendous fossil collection so that those following him would have a richer understanding of the Pennsylvanian times and its associated flora and fauna. The name George Långford has become synonymous with Mason Creek Area fossils, and a number of species have been named after him.

Year after year, regardless of the weather, he plodded over the spoil heaps carrying a pail in one hand and a collecting bag around his neck. One is filled with admiration, love, and respect when you become aware that the thousands of specimens were collected and split by a man who had previously lost one arm.

His determination to benefit the world of paleobotany was incessant. Although he retired as Curator of Fossil Plants at the Chicago Natural History Museum in January 1962, he continued to work on another manuscript to the very end.

George Langford was a tall man, both in stature and character a pity that he had but 88 years to give to this world.

Note: the photos shown above came from the George’s Basement website, which was created and maintained by George’s grandson, George Langford III.