Whitney, Eli - New Haven, CT

Eli Whitney

New Haven, CT

N 41° 18.805 W 072° 55.665

The tomb of the inventor of the cotton gin, Eli Whitney, is located in Grove Street Cemetery at 277 Grove Street, New Haven, CT.  The brownstone tomb is located on the east side of Cedar Avenue in Grove Street Cemetery inside a cemetery plot enclosed by a wrought iron fence. The 7' long rectangular tomb has features a scrolled top and a base with inscriptions on each of the long sides.

On the top of each side is the name ELI WHITNEY On the north side is the inscription:

In the social relations of life a model of excellence.

While private affection weeps at his tomb

his country honors his memory.

On the south side of the tomb is the inscription:

The inventor of the Cotton Gin

Of useful science & arts the efficient

patron & improver.

Inventor Eli Whitney, II is best known for the invention of the cotton gin, a device for removing the seeds from picked cotton balls. An unforeseen consequence of his invention was that it made planting cotton so profitable in the American south that it greatly increased the demand for slave labor. This became an important factor leading to the American Civil War.

Eli Whitney then turned his inventing skills to the manufacture of firearms. In 1798 he received his first contract to manufacture 10,000 muskets for the United States. He perfected their manufacture by machine so that the parts were interchangeable. In the process he became very wealthy as the country's foremost supplier of small arms.

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