Bequest from the Estate of Elizabeth Beattie, 2023.17.4, Connecticut Museum of Culture and Hist…

Images(2)

Schooners docked for winter overhaul, Narrows Island

Date1890-1918

MediumPhotography; nitrate negatives

DimensionsPrimary Dimensions (overall height x width): 4 × 4 7/8in. (10.2 × 12.4cm)

ClassificationsGraphics

Credit LineBequest from the Estate of Elizabeth Beattie

DescriptionBlack and white photographic negative, view of John Beattie Granite Works' schooners docked for winter at the back of Narrows Island, Guilford, Connecticut. Three schooner type sailing vessels are docked in a row, the masts of the front two schooners are down, the mast of the far schooner remains upright and rigged. View of the coastline and a portion of the Beattie Granite Quarry in the background.

Object number2023.17.4

CopyrightPublic Domain

InscribedHandwritten on envelope in black ink: “For Billy / our schooners back / of Narrows Island / for winter overhaul”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.

Subject Terms