If you visit any of the old pioneer cemeteries in this area, occasionally you may see a silvery, blue-gray, metallic “tombstone”. These headstones are made of a material called White Bronze. They are beautiful, delicate-looking and have survived exceedingly well for at least a hundred years. They look as if they were put up yesterday. There is quite a story behind them. The material these are made from is actually zinc. They called them White Bronze because the casting manufacturer thought that bronze had a better connotation than did zinc, and thus would sell better. These monuments were produced from 1874 to 1914. The government took over the manufacturing facility in 1914 to make munitions for World War I. Very few of these white bronze monuments were purchased because most people thought they were inferior to the marble and would not last. To the contrary, these monuments have endured very well and are in excellent condition today. Specimens of these white bronze monuments can be found at many cemeteries in use around 1900. Examples may be seen locally at Salem Cemetery, Ruppert Cemetery, Old Baptist Cemetery and Newtown Cemetery. The detail exhibited in this casting technique is amazing. I have included a couple of photographs from the internet just to show that very large, complicated pieces could be made by this process as well.
Posted on: Thu, 28 Aug 2014 11:34:17 +0000