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The Eli Whitney Museum & Workshop is situated on the historic site of Eli Whitney’s armory. From 1798 until 1979, the location was an active manufacturing site. The museum’s buildings and landscape reflect its evolution from a wooded riverside setting to a factory and community, and ultimately to a destination for history and learning. EWMW is now a preeminent hands-on learning workshop for all ages.
EWMW also holds important collections of archives and objects related to the Whitney Armory, the A.C. Gilbert Company, and projects designed by Apprentices. You can explore those materials and the history of the Museum & Workshop site via the links below.
Timeline
1638
The Quinnipiac are the original inhabitants of the land that would later become the Whitney Armory and the Eli Whitney Museum and Workshop. After the New Haven colony was founded, the Quinnipiac ceded control of many of their ancestral lands, including the banks of the Mill River, but they continued to live in the region.
1640
New Haven colonist Sergeant William Fowler builds the colony’s first watermill at the small natural waterfall below East Rock. A mill operates there until Eli Whitney purchases the site for his armory over 150 years later.
1765
Eli Whitney Sr. is born in Westborough, Massachusetts.
1792
Whitney graduates from Yale College as a mature student.
1793
During a stay in Georgia, Whitney invents the cotton gin.
1798
Whitney secures a contract to manufacture 10,000 guns for the American government and opens the Whitney Armory.
1825
Whitney dies and his nephews Philos Blake and Eli Whitney Blake take over the Armory.
1833
The Blake brothers invent the Escutcheon Latch, a new type of lock.
1835
The Blake brothers leave the Armory to operate their new architectural fittings firm in Westville.
1840
Eli Whitney Jr. (born 1820) takes over the Armory and begins expanding its offerings and modernizing its buildings and manufacturing processes.
1860
Whitney Jr. dams the Mill River just above the Armory, creating Lake Whitney to increase the factory’s water power and supply New Haven with water.
1888
The Whitney Armory is purchased by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. They phase out gun manufacturing at the site.
1904
The Acme Wire Company is established at the site, producing wires for electricity and telephones. They are so successful that they move to a bigger factory site 10 years later.
1914
The Sentinel Stove Company takes over the Armory site.
1918
J. Allen Heany, scientist and inventor, leases the Armory site for his workshop and factory.
1979
Heany Industries moves away from the Armory site and the Eli Whitney Museum and Workshop, established in 1976, takes over the former factory.