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Geology Resources – Delaware

  • Delaware State Geological Survey
  • Delaware State Minerals Information (USGS)
  • America’s Volcanic Past - Delaware, presented by the U. S. Geological Survey.
  • Bedrock Geology of the Piedmont of Delaware and Adjacent Pennsylvania, Delaware Geological Survey Reports of Investigations No. 59, by Margaret O. Plank, William S. Schenck, and LeeAnn Srogi, Delaware Geological Survey, 2000. 52 pp. [PDF]
  • Delaware Geology & Map, presented Andrew Aldren on About.com.
  • Delaware Geology - Map of Delaware - Delaware Rivers - Delaware Earthquake Map - Delaware Minerals, presented by geology.com.
  • Delaware: Its Rocks, Minerals, and Fossils, by D.C. Windish and T.E. Pickett, Delaware Geological Survey, 1980. (Published in cooperation with Delaware Division of Economic Development), 18 pp. (reprinted 1991). [PDF]
  • Delaware Satellite Image, presented by geology.com. (This is a Landsat GeoCover 2000 satellite image of Delaware.)
  • The Irénée du Pont Mineral Room of the University of Delaware Mineralogical Museum
  • A Location Guide for Rockhounds, (PDF) Collected by Robert C. Beste, PG, St. Louis, Missouri: Hobbitt Press, 2nd ed., December 1996, 148 pp. (Includes chapters on “Mineral Locations by State,” “Appendix and Glossary,” and “Bibliography.”)
  • Rockford Park Gneiss, Wilmington Complex (bedrock) at Tower Hill, Delaware, presented by the Delaware Geological Survey. (The link from which the following information was taken is no longer available.)
    <http://www.udel.edu/dgs/geo.html>

    “Fine-grained mafic and felsic gneiss, interlayered at the decimeter scale. The mafic layers contain plagioclase, pyroxene and hornblende, and are commonly boudinaged. The felsic layers contain quartz, feldspar and less than 10% pyroxene. Original igneous textures are obscured by a penetrative foliation and granulite metamorphism. The body of Rockford Park Gneiss at the highpoint is surrounded by the Brandywine Blue Gneiss, which is overall more felsic. Foliation dips moderately to steeply northwest....”

  • University of Delaware

Research Resources – Delaware

The Delaware Stone Industry

Printed & Online Sources

  • Google Book Search
  • “The Architecture of the Granite Shed,” By Paul Wood, November 5, 2007, in the Barre Montpelier Times Argus. (New England States: Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont.)
  • Bedrock Geologic Map of the Piedmont of Delaware and adjacent Pennsylvania, by W. S. Schenck, M. O. Plank, and L. Srogi, Delaware Geological Survey, Geological Map Series No. 10, 1:36,000, 2000. (Map)
  • Blasters' Handbook: A Manual Describing Explosives and Practical Methods of Use, 15th Edition, Du Pont, 1969, 525 pp.
  • Blasters' Handbook: 175 th Anniversary Edition 1802 to 1977: A Manual Describing Explosives and Practical Methods of Use, by E.I. Du Pont de Nemours & Co., Wilmington, Delaware: Prepared by the Sales Development Section of the Explosives Department, E.I. Du Pont de Nemours & Co., Inc. "From America's oldest explosives company...come the newest explosive ideas," 16th Edition, 1980.
  • Delaware: Its Rocks, Minerals, and Fossils, by D.C. Windish and T.E. Pickett, Delaware Geological Survey, 1980. (Published in cooperation with Delaware Division of Economic Development), 18 pp. (reprinted 1991). [PDF]
  • Delaware Piedmont Geology Including a Guide to the Rocks of Red Clay Valley: Delaware Geological Survey Special Publication #20 , by Margaret O. Plank and William S. Schenck, Delaware Geological Survey, University of Delaware, 1998, 62 pp.
  • The Gabbros and Associated Rocks in Delaware, Bulletin 59, by F. D. Chester, United State Geological Survey, Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1890, 45 pp.
  • History of Lewes (Delaware), by Pennock Pusey, (1903), 1998, 32 pp.
  • A History of the State of Delaware, from its First Settlement Until the Present Time, Containing a Full Account of the First Dutch and Swedish Settlements, with a Description of Its Geography and Geology, by Francis Vincent, Philadelphia: John Campbell, 1870.
  • Little Known History of Newark and Its Environs, by Francis A. Cooch, (1936) 1997, 297 pp.
  • A Location Guide for Rockhounds, (PDF) Collected by Robert C. Beste, PG, St. Louis, Missouri: Hobbitt Press, 2nd ed., December 1996, 148 pp. (Includes chapters on “Mineral Locations by State,” “Appendix and Glossary,” and “Bibliography.”)
  • Minerals in the Economy of Delaware: State Mineral Profile No. 46 , by J. A. Sutton (USBM), T. E. Pickett (DGS), and R. R. Jordan (DGS), U. S. Bureau of Mines, October, 1978, 12 pp.
  • Preliminary Report on the Geology and Ground-Water Resources of Delaware, by Ira Wendell Marine and William Charles Rasmussen, Newark Delaware Geological Survey, 1955, 336 pp.
  • The Technology of Marble Quarrying, U. S. Bureau of Mines Bulletin 106, by Oliver Bowles, Washington: Government Printing Office, 1916.
  • “Tools and Machinery of the Granite Industry” (in four parts), by Paul Wood, in The Chronicle of the Early American Industries Association, Inc. (Issues of these magazines are available from th Early American Industries Association, Inc. Parts I, II, and III the four articles are available on the Find Articles web site at the web addresses below, although the photographs are not included.)
    • Part I. Vol. 59, No. 2, June 2006. (“Introduction: This article, the first in a series of four on granite working, deals with granite as a material, an industry, and a product and begins the description of the granite quarrying process.”)
    • Part II. Vol. 59, No. 3, September 2006. (“Introduction: This article, the second in a series of four on granite working, completes the description of the quarrying process....”)
    • Part III. Vol. 59, No. 4, December 2006. (“Granite Finishing: A small number of basic finished dimension stones made up the great majority of granite shed production. For gravestones and private....”)
    • Part IV. Vol. 60, No. 1, March 2007. (“This article is the last in a series of four on the tools and machinery of granite working....”)
  • “Tributes in Stone and Lapidary Lapses: Commemorating Black People in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century America,” by Angelika Krüger-Kahloula, in Markers VI: pp. 32-100, Association for Gravestone Studies. (Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Iowa, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont, USA)
  • United States Geological Survey Geologic Folio 137, Dover, Delaware; Maryland; and New Jersey, by B. L. Miller, 1906, 12 pp., 1 sheet of illustrations, 2 maps.
  • United States Geological Survey Geologic Folio 211, Elkton-Wilmington, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, by F. Bascom and B. L. Miller, 1920, 22 pp., 4 maps.
  • United States Geological Survey Geologic Folio 223, Coatesville - West Chester, Pennsylvania and Delaware, by F. Bascom and G. W. Stose, 1932, 15, [1] pp., 3 sheets of illustrations, 7 maps.
  • United States Geological Survey Geologic Bulletin 1082-K, “Chromite and Other Mineral Deposits in Serpentine Rocks of the Piedmont Upland, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Delaware,” by N. C. Pearre and A. V. Heyl, Jr., 1960 [1961], pp. 707-833.
  • Wilmington: Three Centuries Under Four Flags, 1609-1937, by Anna T. Lincoln, (1937) 1997, 411 pp.

List of Quarries in Delaware & Quarry Links, Photographs and Articles

(The following list of Delaware quarries is not a complete list of all of the historical quarries in the state, only the ones I have been able to locate. If you know of more historical quarries in Delaware, please contact me. Peggy B. Perazzo )

  • United States Quarries - Super Pages.com - Delaware
  • Stone Quarries in Delaware, from History of Delaware, 1609-1888, by Thomas J. Scharf, Vol. I, pp. 4-8-b, Chapter II. The Geology of Delaware. (This book is available on Google Books – Full View Books for reading or downloading to your computer in PDF format.)

    “DURING the years 1837 and 1838, Prof. Jas C. Booth, in accordance with an act of the State Legislature, made a geological survey of Delaware, the results of which were published in a report that appeared in 1841....”

    “The Archean area of the State can be divided into two nearly equal areas. First, a southern club-shaped area of eruptive gabbros and hyperites with associated amphibole rocks, and Second, an upper elliptical area of softer micaceous gneisses and schists.

    “Almost the whole of Brandywine Hundred, and the southern half of Christiana Hundred are covered by the rocks of the first class. To the west of Brandywine Springs these rocks, however, taper out into a narrow belt of not over a quarter of a mile in width, which runs along the southern limit of the Archean to beyond Newark.

    “Another interesting development of the same rocks occurs to the southwest of Red Mills, and thence to the well-known elevations called Iron and Chestnut Hills. The typical hypersthenic gabbro or hyperite of the club-shaped area just described is represented by the so-called " Brandywine granite," which is quarried to such an extensive degree in the neighborhood of Wilmington. It is a rock of dark bluish gray or bluish black color of great hardness and firmness, and is without doubt one of the most valuable and durable stones in existence.**

    (Footnote **: Bulletin, No. 41, U.S. Geological Survey, Washington.

    “This rock has been studied in detail by the writer, and from its wide variation in composition and structural characters is of peculiar interest. The rock, as studied under the microscope, is found to consist of a granular mixture of hypersthene, diallage plagioclase feldspar (labradorite), with accessory quartz, biotite hornblende, magnetite, pyrite and apatite.

    “The most remarkable fact observed in the study of these rocks is the intimate association of highly schistose black hornblende rock with these massive gray gabbros. The black hornblende rock is, after past microscopic studies, found to be but an extreme stage of variation affecting to a greater or less degree the whole gabbro mass. Hornblende, which is the true gabbro is but a rare or accessory constituent, is found to increase in amount until the hypersthene rock passes into a nearly pure hornblende feldspar rock, which from its schistose or banded structure makes it a hornblende gneiss. In the same way it is found that the true gabbros occur in all stages of transition into rocks distinctly granitic in character, or more nearly like many of the European norites or the trap granulites of Saxony .

    “The massive gabbros, best exposed in the extensive quarries of Brandywine Hundred, are entirely massive in structure, or with an entire absence of those planes of bedding which characterize sedimentary deposits. All evidence obtained in the field and with the microscope confirms the belief that they are truly eruptive, and that the rock was at one time in a more or less molten state, in which condition it was probably forced up through the older mica schists which lie to the north and which also lie buried to the south beneath younger clays of the cretaceous. The banded or schistose structure prevalent in the associated hornblende rocks proves also that the rocks of this gabbro belt have been subjected to great pressure, a pressure which the microscope shows was great enough to flatten and elongate certain of the mineral constituents of the rock and to crush others into fragments....”

    “Associated with the softer slaty micaceous rocks are probably intrusive masses of coarse grained granite, which vary in thickness for several inches up to many feet. These granites often become so highly feldspathic as to possess considerable economic value, inasmuch as the feldspar frequently becomes decomposed into Kaolin.

    “The celebrated deposits around Hockessin are of this character. Dixon ’s quarry near Wilmington has produced very fine yields of feldspar. A very notable vein cuts across the road leading up the Brandywine, about one and a half miles from the head of the State. Its width is about twenty feet, and the material a mixture of red orthoclase albite, blue quartz and muscovite. The rock is quarried for the valuable feldspar, used in the manufacture of artificial teeth....”

  • Bellvue, New Castle County, Delaware – Bellevue Quarry – from the James Goss Collection [1971.8], Lewes Historical Society Archives (The link from which this information was obtained is no longer available.)
    <http://www.historiclewes.org/research/archives/1971_8.html>

    “The Goss Collection is comprised of 39 photographs depicting the work on the Gapway and the Harbor of Refuge Breakwater.” The name Hughes Bros. & Bangs is also included in the collection.)

  • Brandywine, Delaware – Brandywine Granite Co. (The following information is from the section “Stone Trade Notes” in Stone: An Illustrated Magazine Devoted to Stone, Marble, Granite, Slate, Cement, Contracting and Building, Vol. XXIV, No.1, January, 1902, Stone Publishing Co., New York, pp. 66.)

    "The Brandywine Granite Co., one of the largest and best known stone companies in the South, has decided to close its plant on the Brandywine, in Delaware, and go out of business. Recently the company was compelled to pay $9,000 damages to an Italian who was injured by a premature blast at its quarries. The directors of the company declare that under the decision of the court a company engaged in a hazardous business cannot continue operations in Delaware. The quarries are now being cleaned up and the machinery will be sold."

  • Brandywine State Park, Delaware - Brandywine Blue Granite Quarry (Blue Rocks) The information was presented by the Delaware Division of Parks and Recreation. (The link from which the following information was obtained is no longer available, although you can visit the Brandywine State Park web site.) <http://www.destateparks.com/bcsp/bcsp.htm>

    The grey stone walls which divide the park were built by Italian stone masons in the late 1800s with local stone.

  • Newark, Delaware - the White Clay Creek State Park, presented by the Delaware Division of Parks and Recreation. The Millstone Trail helps to explore where grindstones were quarried from boulders.
    • Millstone Quarry Hike in the White Clay Creek State Park area, presented in the DNREC News for March 18, 2003, Volume 33, Number 66, Division of Parks and Recreation. (This link is not currently available on the Delaware State Park Online web site.)
      < http://www.dnrec.state.de.us/dnrec2000/Admin/Press/Story1.asp?offset=325&PRID= >

      “Enjoy an interpretive hike from White Clay Creek State Park Nature Center to Millstone Pond to explore a long-deserted quarry. Hidden away in a rock outcropping is an old production site for millstones.”

  • Rockford Park Gneiss, Wilmington Complex (bedrock) at Tower Hill, Delaware, This information was presented by the Delaware Geological Survey. (The link from which the following information was obtained is no longer available.)
    <http://www.udel.edu/dgs/geo.html>

    “Fine-grained mafic and felsic gneiss, interlayered at the decimeter scale. The mafic layers contain plagioclase, pyroxene and hornblende, and are commonly boudinaged. The felsic layers contain quartz, feldspar and less than 10% pyroxene. Original igneous textures are obscured by a penetrative foliation and granulite metamorphism. The body of Rockford Park Gneiss at the highpoint is surrounded by the Brandywine Blue Gneiss, which is overall more felsic. Foliation dips moderately to steeply northwest....”

  • Wilmington, Delaware – Atlas Powder Company (The following information is an advertisement in Pit and Quarry: Sand – Gravel – Stone, magazine, December 1921, pp. 33.)

    Atlas Powder Company

    Wilmington, Delaware

     

    Atlas Non-Freezing

    will not freeze – eliminates thawing and heartaches

    In the most exhaustive tests in both laboratory and field, this new explosive – Atlas Non-Freezing – has withstood the lowest temperatures known to man. It has been used for all explosive requirements and its efficiency has been fully proved in quarries, pits and mines; in rock, earth and ore – all at temperatures varying from that of torrid to the coldest found in the land of perpetual snows.

    Atlas Non-Freezing has the same stability and uniformity that characterize other Atlas high explosives. It will not explode prematurely. No objectionable fumes are given off on detonation. Its use eliminates the headaches that attend the handling of ordinary explosives.

    Atlas Non-Freezing is made in five grades, thus covering all blasting requirements.

    Tell us what explosives you are using now and we will tell you what grade of Atlas Non-Freezing will do the work and save you the inconvenience which attends the use of explosives that are not immune from the effects of cold.

    Branch offices: - Allentown, Pa.; Birmingham, Ala.; Boston; Chicago; Des Moines, Ia.; Houghton, Mich.; Joplin, Mo.; Kansas City; Knoxville; McAlester, Okla.; Memphis; New Orleans; New York; Philadelphia; Pittsburg; Kansas; Pittsburgh, Pa.; Pottsville, Pa.; St. Louis; Wilkes-Barre.

    No thawing – No headaches – No objectionable fumes

  • Wilmington, Delaware – Brandywine Quarry (from article entitled, “Canbyite, A New Mineral,” by A. C. Hawkins and Earl V. Shannon, Rochester, N. Y., and Washington D.C., American Mineralogist, Volume 9, pages 1-5, 1924.)

    Occurrence:

    “Some thirty-five or forty years ago, when the Brandywine Quarry at Wilmington, Delaware, was in operation, Mr. Fred Hilbiber, then living in that city, discovered in this quarry the minerals here described. The quarry is located a quarter mile northwest of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad bridge on Brandywine Creek. It is at present used as a storage yard adjacent to a leather manufacturing plant.

    “The country rock is a gabbro, containing numerous quartz stringers and masses due to the effects of intrusive granite, and showing the minerals enumerated below....” (The minerals associated with the canbyite are listed in the article.)

  • Wilmington, Delaware – E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., Inc., Explosive Department (The following information is from an advertisement in Pit and Quarry: Sand – Gravel – Stone, magazine, December 1921.)

    E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., Inc.

    Explosives Department

    Wilmington, Delaware

    Dupont: Explosives – Service

    You can use the now low-freezing Du Pont Straight Dynamite in any weather without thawing.

    “This powder gave us excellent results…as we found it was the only powder we had during the past winter, and especially during zero weather, which we did not have to thaw, it being in perfect condition at all times when we took it out of our large, unheated magazine…this is the type of powder we have long looked for.” (Excerpt from letter from a large user of explosives)

    The quick action, great shattering power and reliability of Du Pont Straight Dynamite has made it for many years the standard for many kinds of work. The new low-freezing Du Pont Straight, the result of years of work by Du Pont Chemical Engineers, retains all the finer qualities of the old “Straight” without its great disadvantage – high freezing point, requiring a time-wasting and dangerous thawing operation. The new Du Pont Straight can be used successfully without thawing in any weather. It is indeed “the type of powder we have long looked for.”

    Branch Offices:

    Birmingham, Ala.; Boston, Mass.; Buffalo, N.Y.; Chicago, Ill.; Denver, Colo.; Duluth, Minn.; Huntington, W. Va.; Kansas City, Mo.; New York, N.Y.; Pittsburgh, Pa.; Portland, Ore.; St. Louis, Mo.; San Francisco, Calif.; Scranton, Pa.; Seattle, Wash.; Spokane, Wash.; Springfield, Ill.

    Du Pont Products Exhibit: Atlantic City, N. J.

  • Wilmington (northeast of), Delaware - Gabbro/Traprock Stone Quarry Along U.S. 13 (From Mining and Mineral Operations in the United States: A Visitor’s Guide, by Staff, Bureau of Mines, Area Mineral Resource Offices, U. S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines, 1967, pp. 19.)

    “Delaware - The Diamond State. The State’s nickname alludes to its small size and has no relation to diamonds. Delaware’s mineral industry is small and consists largely of sand, gravel, and stone production.”

    “U.S. 13. - A stone quarry can be observed about 2 miles northeast of the center of Wilmington on U.S. 13 (circa 1967). Riprap, large stones used for breakwaters, and crushed stone for roads and concrete aggregate are produced. The rock quarries is a dark colored granitic material called grabbro by geologists and traprock by road builders.”

  • Wilmington , Delaware – Hercules Powder Co. (The following information is from an advertisement in Stone: An Illustrated Magazine, Vol. XI, No. 6, November, 1895, Stone Publishing Co., New York, pp. xxix.)

    Hercules Powder Co., Main Office: Wilmington, Del.

    Fuse, Caps, Reels, Batteries, Augers, Wires, Cap Nippers, Electric Fuses. Thawing Kettles and Stump Blasting Tools.

    Branch Offices:

    1321 Monadnock Block, Chicago, Ill. – Lima. O. – Cuyahoga B’ldg., Cleveland, Ohio – Clifton Forge, Va. – Wainwright Bldg., St. Louis, Mo. – 23 W. Maryland St., Indianapolis , Ind. – Joplin, Mo. – Bradford, Pa. – Houghton, Mich. – Equitable Bldg., Atlanta, Ga. –
    Gante No. 14, City of Mexico

    • Hercules Powder Co., Wilmington, Delaware, advertisement in Stone: An Illustrated Magazine, November, 1895, pp. xxix Hercules Powder Co., Wilmington, Delaware, advertisement in Stone: An Illustrated Magazine, November, 1895, pp. xxix
  • Wilmington, Delaware - Davidson’s Stone Works (1891 Advertisement)

    William Davidson’s Electric Stone Works

    Ninth and King Streets, Wilmington, Delaware

  • Wilmington, Delaware – the Wilmington Marble and Granite Works  (colorized advertising card; printed on front of card:  “Autumn 105”)

    Wilmington Marble and Granite Works,

    Largest Stock.  Lowest Prices.  Best Workmanship.

    Monuments, Tombs, Enclosures, Natels, &c.,

    Charles E. Smith, Tenth and Tatnall Streets, Wilmington, Del.

  • Woodlawn Quarry: A Geologic Adventure in the Delaware Piedmont, presented by the Delaware Geological Survey, University of Delaware.

Structures and Monuments in Which Delaware Stone was Used

  • Finished Products from Delaware Stone in Delaware
    • Delaware Bay (off Cape Henlopen), Delaware – Breakwater – the James Goss Collection [1971.8], Lewes Historical Society Archives. (The link from which this information was obtained is no longer available.)
      <http://www.historiclewes.org/research/archives/1971_8.html>

      “The Goss Collection is comprised of 39 photographs depicting the work on the Gapway and the Harbor of Refuge Breakwater.” The name Hughes Bros. & Bangs is also included in the collection.

    • The old Valley Forge Train Station (east of), Delaware - State Marker commemorating the soldiers in the hills of Valley Forge (1777-1778). (The link from which this information was obtained is no longer available.)
      <http://www.nps.gov/vafo/MONUMENT/vfmon26.html>

      The memorial is constructed of cut Brandywine granite.

  • Finished Products from Delaware Stone in Washington, D.C.
    • Washington, D.C. - Memorial Stone contributed by the State of Delaware for the Washington Monument.

      The National Park Service web site presents the memorial stones in placed in the interior of the Washington Monument. The Delaware Memorial Stone entry reads as follows and can be viewed on the National Park Service’s web site in either the “Album” or the “Slide Show.”

      The Delaware stone in the Washington Monument can be view along with the details in the WAMO Stones Section 2.

      The Washington Monument web site has recently been redesigned. Below is an description that was available on the National Park Service web site in January 2008 that describes the Memorial Stones in the Washington Monument.

      “A unique feature of the Washington Monument is the 193 memorial stones that adorn the interior of the monument. Starting in July 1848 the Washington National Monument Society invited states, cities and patriotic societies to contribute Memorial Stones. The Society listed some requirements to be followed. They asked that the stone be durable, a product of the state’s soil, and meet the following dimensions; four feet long, two feet high and 18 inches thick. These stones pay tribute to the character and achievements of George Washington. These traits are not only admired by Americans but by people the world over as seen by the number of stones donated by foreign countries. Below is a list of stones donated by state. In the near future all the stones will be online.

      “While viewing the stones please keep in mind that the Washington Monument has undergone extensive renovation over the last three years. A key component of the project has been the restoration of the memorial stones. Over the years the stones have been damaged by moisture and vandalism. The pictures that follow show the condition of the stones before their restoration. In the upcoming months new images will be added highlighting the restored stones.”

      The following information relating to the Delaware stone is from the National Park Service web site for the Washington Monument. The Delaware stone in the Washington Monument can be view along with the details in the WAMO Stones Section 2.

      Location: 30-Foot Level, East Wall, 1st Landing

      Dimensions: 5 feet by 4 feet

      Inscriptions: "Delaware. The First to Adopt will be the Last to Desert the Constitution. 1849."

      Material: Granite taken from the Brandywine Battlefield

      Sculptor: Information not available

      Carver: J. N. Clayton

      Date: June 21,1849, March 5, 1850

      More Information:

      The lettering of Delaware is 4' as is the date but the motto is 1 1/4”.

      It was first proposed to the Washington National Monument Society on June 21,1849. A letter dated to Wheatfield, June 21, 1849, proposed to furnished a block with the state's coat of arms and some appropriate event from the Revolution. On March 5, 1850, John Jones, on behalf of the state committee (which included Samuel Canby, William Chandler, and Thomas Smith), sent a letter stating that the block had arrived, and gave the inscription to the Society. In 1853, the Legislature agreed to reimburse $250.00 to the state committee members.

      Documented material history:

      • 1850: “A handsome block of marble intended as the contribution of the State of Delaware towards the erection of the Washington National Monument has just been completed in Philadelphia. It is four feet square and weighs a ton.” [AG, January 25, 1850.]

      • 1850: “The block of stone from the State of Delaware, for the Washington Monument, was sent from Wilmington to Washington on Tuesday. It contains a leaden box, filled with memorials of the present day.” [AG, March 2, 1850.]

      • 1850: “From Delaware, a block of trap rock, taken from near the spot where the battle of Brandywine was fought, 4 feet long, 3 feet high, and 2 feet thick....” [DNI, August 7, 1850.]

      • 1850-53: “March 5, 1850 A letter from John Jones on behalf of the Committee stating that the block had arrived in their hands, and he gave the inscription to the Society. In 1853, after a rejection of the same in 1852, the legislature agreed to reimburse Samuel Canby, William Chandler, Thomas Smith and John Jones $250.00. ( Lincoln Museum )” [MR]

      • 1850s: “This block is of native material; gneiss rock from a quarry, on the battle field of Brandywine . It is inserted within a marble panel...” [RW]

      Images:

      • 1880 Gedney drawing

      • 1957 Allen photograph

      • 1974 photograph

      • 1980 photograph

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