A typical zinc monument, as usual still almost as fresh as when it was installed—except that one panel is missing on one side, leaving the hollow interior open.
Pittsburgh Cemeteries
The Art and Architecture of Death
The Art and Architecture of Death
A typical zinc monument, as usual still almost as fresh as when it was installed—except that one panel is missing on one side, leaving the hollow interior open.
A typical zinc monument in most respects, except that it bears no inscriptions other than the name “STEWART” on the base. Instead, the various Stewarts have individual stone markers. Since one of the attractions of a zinc monument was that it could bear a number of inscriptions, thus saving the expense of individual markers, we suspect that there may have been a Stewart family argument over the Stewart family plot.
A fine zinc monument with only one panel inscribed, for Caroline Grimm. She died in middle age; perhaps her husband remarried and is buried elsewhere. As is usually the case with zinc monuments, it looks almost as fresh as the day it was erected.
A fairly modest but ornate zinc monument for a mother who died in her thirties.
As usual with zinc monuments, this one is nearly as fresh as the day it was put up. There are identical inscribed panels on both sides.
A particularly splendid zinc shaft, well preserved even by zinc standards. This is Style no. 234 from the Monumental Bronze Company.
A splendid bilingual zinc monument—German on one side, English on the other. As usual with zinc monuments, it is as legible now as it was when it was put up. This is style no. 156 from the Monumental Bronze Company, with an interesting choice of panel inserts.
Father Pitt was not able to find this poem anywhere on line. His attempt at a translation follows the transcription, but anyone who knows German better is invited to correct it:
Liebe Eltern ich muss scheiden,
Denn mein Jesus ruft mir zu;
Nun erlost von allem Leiden,
Gönnet mir die susse Ruh.
Tröstet euch, wir seh’n uns wieder,
Dort in jener Herrlichkeit,
Singet ihm die frohen Lieder,
Bleibet doch mit Gott vereint.
Dear parents, I must depart,
For my Jesus calls to me;
Spared by good fortune from all suffering,
He allows me sweet repose.
Be comforted; we shall meet again,
There in that glory,
Sing joyful songs to him,
Linger still united with God.
There may be others, but this is the only zinc monument old Pa Pitt can remember finding in the Homewood Cemetery. Zinc monuments were prohibited in many high-class cemeteries, but sometimes people sneaked them in anyway.
A bilingual zinc or “white bronze” monument for a native of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (now part of Thuringia): English on one side, German on the other. Unusually it gives us two dates: the date of death (1877) and the date the monument was erected (1880).
Kisselbach is a very small town: Wikipedia gives its current population as 586.
The epitaph seems to be from an old folk song. Father Pitt appends his own attempt at a translation, but anyone who knows German better is welcome to improve it.
Lebe wohl du mutterliche Erde,
Nimm mich auf in deinen kühlen Schoos,
Dass mein Herz nach kummer nach beschwerden,
Ruhen möge unterm kühlen Moos.
Farewell, thou motherly earth,
Take me in thy cooling lap,
So that after all my trials and pains,
My heart may rest under the cooling moss.
This particular style of monument is the Monumental Bronze Company’s Design No. 8.
Readers who have explored this site know already that Father Pitt collects zinc monuments. They were mass-produced and considerably cheaper than stone monuments of equivalent size, so that they were often condemned as tasteless and excluded from cemeteries for the better classes of dead people. But they live up to the zinc monument vendors’ extravagant claims: they are as permanent as bronze, or more so, and could be bought in a huge variety of shapes with interchangeable reliefs on the panels.
Here is one of the more modest zinc monuments Father Pitt has found, but it is very well preserved, though many of the stones around it are eroded and illegible.
