The British landscape artist Benjamin Williams Leader made two oil paintings in 1891 depicting the excavation of the Manchester Ship Canal, one held by the National Trust at Tatton Park and the second at Oldham Gallery.
Leader had established a reputation as a painter of evocative and earthy country scenes by the time he made the painting.
The large mound in the background, known as "Mount Manisty", is a heap of spoil from the excavations, named after the agent responsible for constructing this stretch of the canal The Tatton park collection also has a small initial sketch and a half-size modello, both bought by Maurice Egerton, 4th Baron Egerton, at the estate sale of Leader's widow at Christie's in 1927.
A second slightly smaller version of the painting, Manchester Ship Canal: The Making of Eastham Dock, is in Oldham Gallery.
Samuel Platt carried the company's directors on his yacht, Norseman, on an inaugural voyage along the canal on 1 January 1894.