Born in Whitehaven, Cumberland, England, Robert Salmon became a marine painter inspired from living in port towns of Maryport and Whitehaven and being around ships and the sea. He also spent much time in Liverpool and in the ship-building town of Greenock on the west coast of Scotland.

In 1828, for unknown reasons, he came to America on the packet ship, "New York" and for thirteen years maintained a studio on Marine Railway Wharf at the bottom of Hanover Street. An eccentric, he lived in a small hut among the wharves of the Boston Harbor. He was enormously popular, and his work reflecting the years when the Harbor was booming with growth, was highly sought after by collectors including prominent Bostonians Samuel Cabot, Robert Forbes...