Salmon (Robert) is born in Whitehaven, England.

Robert Salmon becomes an artist, moves to Scotland and then to London, then emigrates to Boston in approximately 1829. He establishes a studio at the Marine Railway Wharf on Commercial Street, and becomes the first and the foremost marine artist in the city. When his eyesight begins to fail, he lives Boston in 1840. Salmon dies in England in 1845.