e. t. banum catalog no. 770

7/16/2019 E. T. Banum Catalog No. 770

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Remnants and evidence of the long-defunct E. T. Barnum Iron & Wire Works are to befound prevalently all around this country and others as well - if one is aware of what one is

seeing. Works of iron and steel tend to last beyond their remembered lives more readily than

much of the fragile ephemera of human existence.


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Upon its founding in 1866, Barnum Iron

was at the center of the great industrial

push toward the new century, still 33

years in the future.

Iron and steel were the coveted crude oil

of their day, as well as the symbolic (andreal) foundations for the American Indus-

trial Revolution or, as it was thought of

at the time, resolute American progress.

U.S. interests in Cuba and the Philip-

pines grew from our hunger for these

metals, and our hunger was insatiable.

Iron and steel made this country whole by

spanning it with railroads. Carnegie, Mor-gan, Rockefeller....just a few names syn-

onymous with sublime unreachable wealth

that germinated from these metals. The

uses grew as the metals and the technolo-

gies for rening them evolved. Skyscrap-

ers, automobiles, giant transatlantic ships,

and the human word itself (conducted viathe steel wire in telegraph and telephone)

existed because of this most sought-after

ore. At the time, the greatest change from

the 19th to 20th Centuries, electricity, was

merely seen as a scientic bonus...added

value to the wealth of advances bequeathed

by the smelting of iron and iron into steel.


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The riches this progress engendered owed outward, and within this world, E. T. Barnums

company was small potatoes. They produced fountains, marquees, cages, fences, gates, and

other examples of ornamental and utilitarian iron. Yet the burgeoning wealth of both the mag-

nates and what would soon become the theretofore unheard of middle class would require

these perquisites, and cities would order re escapes, jail cells, and other infrastructural com-

ponents required of these new centers of production, progress, and population.

Through that lens, Barnum was a big sh.

It is likely the Great Depression killed Barnum

Iron & Wire Works, as it had so many others,

though Barnum had successfully weathered

business crises and economic tumult before.


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E. T. Barnum Iron &

Wire Works Catalog

#770 speaks for itself

as it reveals the prod-

ucts the company pro-

duced in its day, but

it is worth following

with examples of what

remains of Barnums

stock in trade today

as well.


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Interestingly, from a 21st

Century perspective, the most

identiable physical evidence of

Barnums existence remain their

jail cells. Their marquees andre escapes, benches and statu-

ary still dot the country, but the

jails, all of which had engraved

Barnum names plates attached,

formally heralded their history

and heritage.


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Late 19th Century

jail pail, produced

by Barnum intended

for use as an in-cell

latrine by inmates.

On May 16 1902 the city council

instructed the clerk to look for

steel cage jails and get pricing.

On June 6 1902 Papers per-

taining to the plans and specica-

tions of the jail cell was turned

over to the nancial committee.

On October 10 1902 the

Burden City Council authorizer

the payment of $217.00 to E. T.

Barnum Wire and Iron Works

Manufactures of Jail Cells in De-

troit Michigan.

On February 20 1903 W. L.

Hutton was paid $8.00 for paint-

ing the new jail and R. L. Bailey

was paid $2.25 for paint.


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E. T. Barnum Iron & Wire Works-produced benches of the municipal and ornamental garden varieties.

Urban Salvage

Smithsonian Institution


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Boy & Girl Fountain

Janssen Park, Mena,Polk County, Arkansas

E. T. Barnum Wire & Iron Works, founder.

Date: ca. 1914. Dedicated April 1914.

cast zinc, painted; Umbrella: sheet copper

with iron stem; Base: concrete.

City of Mena, Parks Department

From the Smithsonian Art Inventory Catalogue: A fountain sculpture of a boy and girl standing under an

umbrella atop a patch of grass and rocks. The boy is barefoot and has short hair. He is bare-chested and wears

pants that are rolled up at the knees. He holds the open umbrellas handle with his two hands. The girl standsbehind him, to the boys proper left. She is barefoot, wears a kerchief over her head, and a loose-tting, knee-

length, short-sleeved dress, that is slipping off her proper left shoulder. She holds the hem of her dress in her

proper left hand and has her proper

right hand around the boys arm. A

large concrete frog sits in front of the

girls feet, while a smaller frog sits

behind the children. The fountain rests

on a cylindrical base in a circular

basin. Water once rose up through the

umbrella stem and spouted out the topof the umbrella. The piece was dam-

aged in a Nov. 1993 tornado. The

umbrella is a replacement fabricated of

sheet copper.

Preserved with support from local

citizens, and the National Endowment

for the Arts. A project of Heritage

Preservation and Smithsonian Ameri-

can Art Museum.


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Statue by Fisk Iron

Works, fountain by

E.T. Barnum Wire &

Iron Works - 1909.

Sculpture: 7x3x2.

Base: 6-3x5x5.

Inscription on front ofbase beneath fountain:

Furnished by

E.T.Barnum, Detroit, Mich.

Erected By The Slatington

Hose Company No. 1 1909.

Slatington, Pennsylvania Fireman Fountain

A reman holds a young baby draped in a white sheet

in his proper left hand, and a bronze lantern with his

proper right hand. The reman wears a uniform, with

blue coat and pants with gold trim, and a red remans

hat. On the front there is a spout and horse trough

and, on the back, an operational water fountain.

Administered by the Borough of Slatington,

Located at 550 Main Street, Slatington, Pennsylvania.

Detail of pre-restoration Barnum

fountain with plaque at base.


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A Selection of pages from earlier Barnum Catalogs, 19th Century - 1919


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e. t. banum catalog no. 770

Documents

banum catalog

works of iron

barnum iron wire works

remembered lives