Mungo Ponton

Who was Mungo Ponton?

Mungo Ponton FRS was a Scottish inventor who in 1839 created a method of permanent photography based on sodium dichromate.

Mungo was a farmer's son, born and raised in Edinburgh. He became a legal apprentice and was admitted to the Society of Writers to the Signet, a legal fraternity, on 8 December 1825. He married Helen Scott Campbell on 24 June 1830 and the couple had seven children. His first wife died on 7 August 1842 and he married his second wife, Margaret Ponton, on 7 November 1843 with whom he had a son. Mungo suffered a breakdown around 1845 and moved to Bristol, England for its milder climate. He married his third wife, Jean McLean, on 1 August 1871. Ponton died at his home in Clifton, Bristol on 3 August 1880.