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Bequest from the Estate of Elizabeth Beattie, 2023.17.6, Connecticut Museum of Culture and Hist…
Schooner TOM BEATTIE setting granite at West Wharf
Bequest from the Estate of Elizabeth Beattie, 2023.17.6, Connecticut Museum of Culture and History collection, Public Domain

Schooner TOM BEATTIE setting granite at West Wharf

Date1890-1918
MediumPhotography; nitrate negatives
DimensionsPrimary Dimensions (overall height x width): 4 13/16 × 3 3/4in. (12.2 × 9.5cm)
ClassificationsGraphics
Credit LineBequest from the Estate of Elizabeth Beattie
DescriptionBlack and white photographic negative. View of granite sea wall at West Wharf with the rigging of the Beattie Granite schooner, TOM BEATTIE, visible behind the wharf. The schooner is setting granite at the West Wharf, Madison, Connecticut.
Object number2023.17.6
CopyrightPublic Domain
Inscribed(.6-.7) Handwritten on envelope in black pen: “Madison / West Wharf / Schr TOM BEATTIE / Setting granite / Scow SHAMROCK / hoisting stone dredged / from excavation where / foundation was to go in.”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.
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