WHAT IS “WHITE BRONZE?”
Edited from Monumental Bronze: A Representative American Company
By Barbara Rotundo
(Used with permission.)

Few people have ever noticed white bronze memorials in cemeteries, but once they learn what they are, it’s hard to not see them dot the landscape of almost any cemetery. These distinctive silver-bluish-gray colored markers are made of pure zinc, a non-magnetic metal that is heavier than iron but not as heavy as lead. Zinc develops a protective coating of zinc carbonate or zinc oxide when exposed to the air; forming the unique color characteristic of all white bronze memorials.

Zinc was not new in the nineteenth century. Early Romans, Chinese, and East Indians had all used zinc. However, the industrial science and technology of the nineteenth century provided the capability for smelting nearly pure zinc and for producing hollow statues and other decorations on a mass scale.

Although we do not need to know all the technical details of manufacturing white bronze monuments, some notion of the manufacturing process helps explain the changes made after production began in 1874 and establishes the background for the distribution system that evolved. There are three contemporary accounts that give information in addition to the catalogs and city directories. The earliest is a single surviving issue of White Bronze Advocate from 1883. Next chronologically was an unsigned article in Scientific American in 1885, and finally an article in a metal-industry publication in 1910.

The first step in the manufacturing process, as in any kind of casting, was the model, in this case a wax model. The company employed an artist full-time to make these wax models and offered the service of producing bust and bas-reliefs from portraits or photographs. The artist in Bridgeport did the entire model making.

A plaster cast was made of the wax model, and then that plaster cast was used to make a plaster duplicate of the wax model, and from this second plaster cast they made sand castings that became the monuments. The final plaster cast was cut in pieces so that the white bronze pieces were comparatively small and simple, allowing each casting to have sharp details. The pieces were fused together, apparently an innovative technique at that time. Rather than soldering the pieces together with a solder that was an alloy, Monumental Bronze workers clamped the pieces together and poured pure, hot zinc into the joints. Since the heat melted the surfaces of the cast pieces, they were truly fused together and became inseparable. Usually the bottom section of the monument was cast with four inner tabs with holes in them. These tabs were supposed to have pegs through the holes, the other ends of the pegs being sunk into the cement or granite foundation, just as granite monuments should be pegged to their bases as well as secured with mortar. Sometimes sections of tall monuments were bolted together through such tabs on the bottom of the upper and the top of the lower section (See middle section of Kent County Monument).

As mentioned earlier, the product changed between the first sales and the incorporation of Monumental Bronze. The casting and fusing remained the same; the modification came at the end of the manufacturing process and involved the treatment of the surface of the white bronze. On monuments from the 1877-1879 period just before incorporation, the surfaces are a smooth, dark-gray surface while later ones (after the 1879 incorporation) have a porous finish with the typical silver-blue-gray color. The new production process involved sandblasting the fused cast, causing the surface to resemble stone rather than metal and lightening the color.

And what about preservation? What is the condition of these century-old white bronze memorials? Have the claims for durability held up? Given the strong language of their claim, the people associated with Monumental Bronze should have expected some dissatisfaction. Readers who think Madison Avenue hyperbole is a modern phenomenon have never looked at nineteenth-century hype. Of course, Monumental Bronze learned if from the master himself – Phineas T. Barnum. Barnum made Bridgeport his home and was an active and supportive citizen. He even wrote an enthusiastic letter about white bronze to help his fellow citizens, but his monument in Bridgeport’s Mountain Grove Cemetery is granite.

So far as damage by weather and pollutants like acid rain is concerned, time has upheld the glowing testimonials by chemists about the durability and imperviousness of zinc. The details of letters and emblems are as sharp as ever and the blue-gray surface is unblemished. A trade secret of Monumental Bronze that apparently will remain a secret was the makeup of the “film” that they brushed over each monument after the sandblasting. They told the reporter on the Detroit visit quoted in the White Bronze Advocate that they were simply hastening the formation of the coating that would develop naturally from the atmosphere.

The most damaging weakness of zinc is its tendency to “creep,” a word that becomes clearer in meaning as we look at what actually occurs. Creeping causes the most problems in large monuments of vertical designs (see the monument in Portsmouth, NH). Since there are hundreds of Civil War monuments standing around the United States in town squares and other conspicuous locations, creeping represents the most serious preservation or restoration problem. The weight of the zinc at the top of the monument or statue puts pressure on the metal lower down and causes it to move very, very slowly. This is creep. This pressure and resultant movement means there is rarely a straight base line on a monument of any size. Sometimes the movement has caused tiny cracks where the metal stretched too far and broke. The weight above can cause any monument to creep. From all reports, the only satisfactory way to prevent this creeping is an inner armature to support the weight [which the conservator will place inside the Kent County monument].

“…the material, (being of a LIGHT GRAY COLOR) is more pleasing to the eye in the form of STATUES and MONUMENTS than is the DARK or ANTUQUE BRONZE (which is an amalgam of zinc, tin and copper), and this improvement in…color justly entitles our goods to their TRADE NAME of “White Bronze.”
- From a Monumental Bronze Company catalog

THE HISTORY OF MONUMENTAL BRONZE
From the History of Bridgeport & Stratford
By Samuel Orcutt, Vol. 2, 1886

The Monumental Bronze Company was organized and established in Bridgeport, Connecticut in the early part of the year 1874, located on the corner of Barnum and Hallett Streets. It proved to be a successful enterprise.

About the year 1868, Mr. M.A. Richardson was placed in charge of the Sherman Cemetery grounds in Chautauqua County, New York, and during several years of service there, became impressed with the need of something more durable than stone for monumental use. His studies in the matter led him first to investigate the qualities of stone china as an article for such use, but after three journeys to Trenton, New Jersey and other researches in the matter, turned his attention to the practicability of using galvanized iron for this purpose.

In testing this material he made at Buffalo (NY) a small monument, placing stained glass tablets upon it with an inscription, but after three years, he found the stained glass, which he had been told would endure against the weather, peeled off and hence was of no value in this kind of work. During this time, his investigations, by a chance observation, were directed to the qualities of cast or molded zinc, and soon after he came to the conclusion that this was the article to meet his purposes. With this, he galvanized his monument and took it to his home in Sherman (NY) and began to solicit capital for the purpose of producing this kind of monument. He found Mr. O.J. Willard willing to become a partner in the business and they went to Patterson, New Jersey in May 1873, where they contracted with a firm to manufacture this kind of monument.

Mr. Willard made a trip into the country and obtained about thirty orders, but at this point, the work ended because the contractors failed to produce good castings. Another expedition was made to Brooklyn, New Jersey to obtain the castings but it failed. After several other failures, these persevering men built a shanty, put in a furnace, hired a molder, and at the end of three weeks produced some very good castings for their purpose, which astonished the other parties who had failed and had proclaimed the castings could not be made. Some further efforts being made to interest capital having failed, the matter was given up as dead, and to be buried without a monument. Soon however, a contract was made with Mr. William Walter Evans of Patterson, New Jersey, cashier of the great locomotive works, giving him exclusive rights to manufacture for the United States and to sell the same to Mr. Richardson’s and Willard’s agents at a stipulated price. He proceeded with the business about a year when he sold his interest to Wilson, Parsons and Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut, which was already in business as an iron foundry (See Foundry), in the early part of 1874.

When the enterprise began in Bridgeport, it was said that one man could do all the work then to be done, and the full development of the methods had not been obtained, but by various experiments previous and afterwards, the system was perfected. Soon after, the company came to Bridgeport, Mr. Daniel Schuyler was admitted as a partner, and the firm of Wilson, Schuyler and Company continued until the year 1877, when Mr. A.S. Parsons became a partner and the name was known as Schuyler, Parsons, Landon and Company. The business increased more rapidly until 1879 when it was formed into a stock company with a full paid cash capital of $300,000 under the title of Monumental Bronze Company. Since then, the business has rapidly increased, and the company now able to produce anything in the monumental or statuary line, however great the size. The company has established manufactories in the following places: [the first in Detroit, known as Detroit Bronze, which operated from 1881-1885], one in Chicago, known as American White Bronze Company; the Western White Bronze Company at Des Moines, Iowa; the St. Thomas White Bronze Monument Company, at St. Thomas, Canada; and the New Orleans White Bronze Works at New Orleans.

The one great claim of the company in favor of their work is durability far beyond any one stone that can be obtained, and of this quality there is certainly great need as exhibited by the decaying stones in all the cemeteries and burying places in the United States (See advertisement). The present [1886] officers of this company are: President, A.S. Parsons, formerly contractor in the Wheeler and Wilson Sewing Machine Company; Vice-President, E.N. Sperry, of New Haven [CT]; Treasurer, W.O. Corning, from New York; and Secretary, R.E. Parsons, from Norwich, CT.

THE FIRST SUBSIDIARY – DETROIT BRONZE (1881-1886)
From Monumental Bronze: A Representative American Company
By Barbara Rotundo
(Used with permission.)

As a first step in expanding its successful business, Monumental Bronze established a subsidiary in Detroit in 1881. One would assume that the parent company sent out an experienced man to guide production, but the list of officers of Detroit Bronze appearing in the city directory does not include such a man. Instead, in Detroit as they were doing in setting up later subsidiaries, officials in Bridgeport looked for men of established standing in the business and financial communities. Perhaps these figureheads received a salary, perhaps they received stock in the company, perhaps they received a percent of the total sales for their subsidiary, but rarely did they seem to take an active part in producing white bronze monuments. In Detroit for instance, the first president was a partner in a meatpacking firm, while two years later, the president was an officer of the Michigan Gas Light Company. The Detroit city directory reveals that one J.H. Eakins had been selling white bronze monuments as early as 1879, and a history of Detroit published in 1884 credits the incorporation of Detroit Bronze to Eakins, yet Eakins was never an officer of the company or its subsidiary. Perhaps the sales by Eakins persuaded Bridgeport to choose Detroit for its first finishing and distribution center in the west. Something happened however, because in 1886 the city directory no longer lists Detroit Bronze and the company never again appears in Detroit. The White Bronze Advocate in 1883 had divided the country in two and had given Detroit jurisdiction over Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and “all States West.” (However, Bridgeport kept Texas.)

The truth of the matter is that the salesman or agent was all-important in the marketing of white bronze monuments. Neither the main plant in Bridgeport nor the foundries of the subsidiaries sold to customers. The role of the foundries was to fill the orders of the agents. The advertisements placed by the subsidiaries in the various city directories usually urged people to become agents. Sometimes, they were merely institutional, boasting about the durability of the product, but they never gave an address where monuments could be purchased because every single monument was made to order. Customers could not walk into a salesroom to look over the designs. They had to judge the final product by monuments already erected in cemeteries or from the illustrations in the catalogs. The final pages of the longest white bronze catalog directly address possible agents, listing all the advantages, including “No investment of capital is needed.” They point out white bronze has a product for everyone, with prices ranging from $2 to $5,000. Markers that could take a full name began at $4, with one for full name and dates at $6. The catalog also reminds future agents that there will always be a market for white bronze so long as people continue to live and die.

Most agents, in modern terms, were moonlighting, but judging by the markers they left behind, very few of them made any money. This system undoubtedly explains why most cemeteries contain one or two white bronze, and rarely does one have as many as a dozen among the hundreds or thousands of marble or granite monuments. Distribution, or sales providing the distribution, was the greatest marketing problem Monumental Bronze faced. Each agent probably started of with enthusiasm and visions of wealth, but after a year or so, when he had sold only one or two, he lost all his drive. There seems to have been a silent boycott of white bronze markers by marble and granite dealers.

THE END OF AN AMERICAN COMPANY
Headlines from the Bridgeport, CT Post

The March 8, 1939 headlines read: U.S. Taxes Drive Out Firm Established 69 Years Ago – Monumental Bronze Files Dissolution Papers.

Increased taxation and governmental restrictions will end the 69-years career of the Monumental Bronze Company, 354 Howard Avenue, Ralph M. Sperry, president and treasurer declared today. The firm, once known throughout the world for its manufacture of metal monuments, has filed dissolution papers in Superior Court and is disposing of its equipment.

“The constantly increasing tax burden and government restrictions make the business no longer profitable to run,” Mr. Sperry asserted. He added that his other interests also motivated the decision to close the plant.

During the World War the plant was taken over by the U.S. Government for the manufacture of gun mounts and ammunitions. After the conflict ended, and until the present, it was engaged in production of non-ferrous materials.

An article in the March 9, 1939 Post stated: Sperry Provides Workers Losing Jobs as Plant Closes.

Nearly all of 40 employees of the Monumental Bronze Company, who lost their positions with the closing of the 69-years-old Bridgeport firm, have been placed in other jobs, Ralph M. Sperry, president and treasurer said today.

Sperry, who yesterday blamed “the constantly increasing tax burden and government restrictions: for dissolution of the company said: “We have taken care of most of our men by placing them in jobs in other foundries in this area.” He declared that liquidation of assets will be completed gradually. Dissolution papers filed in Superior Court listed assets of $37,651 and liabilities of $4,316.

On March 11, 1939 the headlines proclaimed: Statues the World Over Keep Alive Name of Closed Monumental Firm.

The Monumental Bronze Company, passing into the industrial history of Bridgeport, will leave its “footprints” on the battlefields of the world as well as in many cities, towns, and hamlets of America. Once a thriving business, the 69-year-old metal monument firm has molded hundreds of memorials, which have become shrines for war-stricken peoples.

France, Gettysburg, Vicksburg – all recorded for posterity – have Bridgeport-made monuments rising over the graves and scenes of great struggles. In America, the company’s records show that its soldiers and sailors statues are standing on village and city greens in 31 of 48 states.

NOTES: The company actually ceased to cast memorials in 1914 and from 1930-1939, failed to even advertise anything about their company. Although Monumental Bronze ceased to exist, company secretary C.A. Baldwin apparently continued to cast the interchangeable plates for existing memorials under the new name of Memorial Bronze Company. No other history has yet been found.