Quarry Cutting Yard looking toward Narrows Island
Date1890-1918
MediumPhotography; nitrate negatives
DimensionsPrimary Dimensions (overall height x width): 3 15/16 × 5 1/8in. (10 × 13cm)
ClassificationsGraphics
Credit LineBequest from the Estate of Elizabeth Beattie
DescriptionBlack and white photographic negative, view of the Cutting Yard at John Beattie Granite Works looking toward Narrows Island, Guilford, Connecticut. A clothesline hung with laundry and a large garden space occupy the foreground. Beyond the garden are an outcropping of rock at the right and a cluster of barns or outbuildings at the left. The depot quarry hill is visible in the far background.
Object number2023.17.3
CopyrightPublic Domain
InscribedTyped on envelope, “QUARRY CUTTING / YARD LOOKING TOWARD NARROWS ISLAND / ALSO GRANDMOTHER’S GARDEN with potatos [sic] / just coming up.”Handwritten on envelope in green and black ink below typed label, “The Barns in background / In the far background is the / Depot Quarry Hill + half / way to there is the Hall”
NotesSubject Note: John Beattie's granite quarry, situated in Guilford on the Long Island Sound, was well-positioned to distribute granite via a fleet of schooners to locations in Connecticut and New York. Notably, granite from Beattie's quarry was used in the pedestal at the base of the Statue of Liberty.
The quarry operated from 1869, when Scottish immigrant Beattie purchased 400 acres of land on Leetes Island, until about 1918, when Beattie's sons closed up shop 20 years after his death. At its height, the quarry employed 700 people, many of them immigrants from Scotland, Ireland, England, Finland, Sweden, and Italy.
On View
Not on view
c. 1905-1910
1890-1918
March 1905
1890-1918
1890-1918