Narrows Island from West Quarry
Date1917
MediumPhotography; nitrate negatives
DimensionsPrimary Dimensions (overall height x width): 3 1/16 × 5 5/16in. (7.8 × 13.5cm)
ClassificationsGraphics
Credit LineBequest from the Estate of Elizabeth Beattie
DescriptionBlack and white photographic negative, view of Narrows Island, Guilford, Connecticut from top of John Beattie Granite's West Quarry. Piles or outcroppings of stone and vegetation surround a small wooden building at center with a dilapidated frame building at far left. A thick wire runs from the far left to the center. Steel rail tracks are visible in the foreground with a view of the Connecticut coastline in the background. The photographed area was formerly the hub of Beattie Quarries, containing the office, sail loft, blacksmith shop, water supply tanks, and steam powerhouse.
Object number2023.17.1
CopyrightPublic Domain
InscribedHandwritten by Robert Beattie on envelope in blue marker: "Narrows Island / 1917 / taken from top of / West Quarry / The foreground used / to be the hub of the / Quarry– office– sail / loft– Blacksmith shop / water supply tanks / Steam power house"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
