Pittsburgh Cemeteries

Tag: Bronze

  • George Hogg Monument, Allegheny Cemetery

    Angel of the Resurrection

    “Angel of the Resurrection” was the sculptor’s name for this bronze angel. Henry Kirke Brown was the sculptor, and he was one of the first Americans to cast his own full-size bronzes. When his statue of De Witt Clinton was unveiled in 1855, it was reported to be the first full-length statue cast in bronze by an American; this angel, however, is older, though a little less than life size (if angels have a life size). By some reckonings, then, this is the first large bronze statue cast in America. It was cast in about 1850, since George Hogg died in 1849.

    Face of the angel
    Angel of the Resurrection
    George Hogg monument

    More pictures of the George Hogg monument.

  • Porter Mausoleum, Homewood Cemetery

    Porter mausoleum

    A little bit of Deco Gothic fantasy whose bronze doors are worth admiring.

    Porter mausoleum

    You can also see summer pictures of the Porter mausoleum, including the exceptionally fine stained glass.

  • Danielis Monument, First Congregational Church of Etna Cemetery

    Danielis monument

    A bronze monument unlike anything else old Pa Pitt has seen around here, and he suspects it may have been done by a craftsman more used to architectural ornamentation than to cemetery monuments. Whoever it was created a fine work, however, and the inscriptions are also good pieces of hand lettering.

    Bertha Danielis, 1880–1923; Alexander Danielis, 1875–1949

    Bertha
    Danielis
    1880–1923
    Alexander
    Danielis
    1875–1949

    Danielis
    Bronze tracery
    Danielis monument

  • Haas Mausoleum, St. Michael’s Cemetery

    Haas mausoleum

    An attractive Art Deco design with more traditionally Gothic bronze doors that have survived because this mausoleum is right at the cemetery entrance, where people might tend to notice two men with a pickup truck fiddling with a mausoleum in the middle of the night. (Note the fence spike in the foreground: old Pa Pitt apologizes for that, but it’s sometimes hard to see what’s in the picture when the camera has to be held above a fence.) This is one of only two mausoleums in St. Michael’s Cemetery, and it is the grander of the two.

    Stained glass of the Holy Family

    The stained-glass window of the Holy Family is a very good one, though it was probably a standard catalogue item.

    Angel in bronze

    Angels adorn the bronze doors.

    Bronze decorations
    Corner view

  • Laughlin Tombstones, Allegheny Cemetery

    Laughlin tombstones, Allegheny Cemetery

    There was a brief revival of early-nineteenth-century tombstone styles in the 1920s and 1930s, and it produced some very attractive designs. Several of them are in the Laughlin plot. The three above share a weeping-willow design patterned after folk-art tombstones of a hundred years earlier.

    Alice Denniston Laughlin
    James B. Laughlin
    Clara Young Laughlin
    Anne Irwin Laughlin

    This later tombstone is made in the same shape as the others, but with a different decorative scheme.

    Henry A. Laughlin

    In the same plot are some stones with bronze plaques commemorating Henry B. Laughlin and his two wives.

    Alice B. Denniston Laughlin
    Mary B. Reed Laughlin