Figure 1. Examples of microscope slides by Andrew Watt. All known slides with dates place their production during the mid-late 1930s. Watt moved to nearby Queens prior to 1940; I am not aware of slides with his Queens address.
Andrew Watt, 1890 - 1973
by Brian Stevenson
last updated June, 2024
Andrew Watt, of Brooklyn, New York, was an expert amateur slide-maker who prepared high quality mounts of insects and spiders (Figure 1). He is known to have been an active member of the New York Microscopical Society during the mid-late 1930s.
Figure 1.
Examples of microscope slides by Andrew Watt. All known slides with dates place their production during the mid-late 1930s. Watt moved to nearby Queens prior to 1940; I am not aware of slides with his Queens address.
Andrew Watt was born on June 2, 1890 in Dundee, Scotland. He was the fourth child, and second son, of eight children on Andrew and Catherine Watt. Father Andrew worked as a "power loom tenter" in a jute spinning mill (i.e. he performed adjustments to bring looms back up after a new warp beam was added, and basic maintenance to keep power looms running).
Father and mother Watt and their six youngest children emigrated to Brooklyn, New York, the father in 1906 and the others arriving in New York on April 2, 1907. Father Andrew continued his line of work, with the 1910 national census listing his occupation as "Loom fixer, Jute Mills".
By 1910, our microscopist had begun to work as a machinist at the Eberhard Faber pencil factory in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. He married Emma Thorstensen on December 20, 1913. The could had three children, two girls and a boy. The son was also named Andrew, so our man was often called "Andrew Watt, Sr.". By 1925, he had been promoted to foreman of the pencil factory.
To judge from the quality of Watt's slides that he produced in 1937, he must have taken up that hobby quite some time earlier. Two records are known of his participation in events of the New York Microscopical Society: he exhibited a "collection of insect slides" at the 1938 Annual Exhibition of the N.Y.M.S (Figure 2), and, on JUly 17 of the same year, led an outing to Smithtown, Long Island to see "microscopic life, insects, reptiles, and botanizing" (Figure 3).
The 1940 national census records a move to Queens, New York. Watt was still foreman at Eberhard Faber.
Andrew Watt died on January 25, 1973, in Smithtown, Long Island, New York.
Figure 2.
Excerpt from the list of exhibitors at the New York Microscopical Society's Annual Exhibition, held February 26, 1938.
Figure 3.
Excerpt from the 1938 list of field meetings of the Torrey Botanical Club and the New York Microscopical Society.
Acknowledgement
Thank you to Harold Brundage for generously sharing information on the identity of Andrew Watt.
Resources
Sixty-first Annual Exhibition of the New York Microscopical Society (1938)
Torrey Botanical Club and New York Microscopical Society Field Meetings, March-November, 1938 (1938)
U.S. census and other records, accessed through ancestry.com