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Connecticut
Ironmakers, the Eliots, Holleys, and Ames
Members of three families, the Eliots, the
Holleys, and the Ames, held prominent places in the rise of Connecticut
ironmaking to national significance. In 1762 Jared Eliot earned a gold
medal from the Society for the Arts in London for make iron from sea
sand at his son’s steelworks in Killingworth. The Holleys made their
forges in the Salisbury district the sole-source suppliers of gun iron
to the national armories at Springfield and Harpers Ferry through the
1830s. The Ameses, represented in Connecticut by Horatio Ames, developed
new techniques for making wrought iron that enabled them to become the
leading suppliers of railroad locomotive tires into the 1860s.
Archaeological studies at the sites of these enterprises are giving us
new insights on metallurgical techniques and resource use in
Connecticut.
Prof.
Robert Gordon, Yale University - Geology Department
(203) 432-3125
robert.gordon@yale.edu
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Goodyear's
Rubber Desk |
Goodyear Vulcanization at Naugatuck
Although his name today is a household word, Charles Goodyear
met with little financial success. Goodyear went to great lengths
to market his vulcanized rubber, creating products ranging from dolls to
a desk to a romanticized portrait of himself painted on rubber by one of
the leading artists of the day. A Connecticut native, Goodyear
established his first rubber factory in Naugatuck in 1843. By the
1880s, Naugatuck was known as the ³first rubber town in America,² and
Goodyear was immortalized for his Yankee ingenuity
Raechel
Guest, Assistant Curator
Mattituck
Museum, Waterbury, CT.
(203) 753-0381,
ext. 15
rguest@mattatuckmuseum.org
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