and Joseph Lamson later went on to become very successful carvers in the region. Through probate documentation, newspaper announcements and inscripted signatures, researches have been able to associate more carvers behind particular headstones with identifiable historical people. Although some 300 individual carvers working in New England have been identified, not much is known about the majority of them, with some exceptions including John Lamson of Ipswich, Gershom Bartlett of Bolton, William Mumford of Boston, Josiah Manning and his sons Fredrick and Rockwell of Windham, John Zuricher of Manhattan, the James Foster family of Dorchester, The Stevens Family of Newport, and Nathaniel Holmes (active c. 1805) of Plymouth among others. By the mid 18th century, stone-carving had become an independent industry, with its own system of apprenticeships and workshops. Although not considered a fine art, the craft required large amounts of skill and knowledge, including selecting stones from rock outcroppings, shaping them, preparing their faces and carving the reliefs. Different schools of carving emerged in different regions of New England, The John Stevens Shop based in Newport soon grew in popularity and soon was competing with new Rhode Island based carvers such as Gabriel Allen and Charles Hartshorn both based out of Providence Rhode Island all carving out of locally sourced slate. The Connecticut River valley was prized for its brownstone quarries which were often used by the regions grave carvers. Portland, Connecticut in particular had one of the largest brownstone quarries and many carvers were based from the region due to the ample supply of material. Carving families such as the Stanclift Family and Thomas Johnson Family would emerge with generations of tradesmen perfecting the art of carving from the soft and malleable stone. Brownstone was prized due to its manipulative properties making it easier to carve elaborate designs when compared to Granite Schist or Slate, though ironically these characteristics made the stone prone to worse weathering and erosion than the latter materials. Flat, tablet shaped stones made from slate was the preferred medium until marble became fashionable in the early 19th century. Early puritan era carvers were especially preoccupied by economy of line, geometric shapes and, at times abstract patterns. They show an unstyled "primitive" approach that tended towards simplicity and naturalism. As the approach is not detectable in later American art, the historian Allan Ludwig described it as a "half-finished experiment in form making. Its place...must therefore be