Remnants and evidence of the long-defunct E. T.

Barnum Iron & Wire Works are to be found 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.

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 (and real) foundations for the American Industrial Revolution or, as it was thought of at the time, resolute American progress. U.S. interests in Cuba and the Philippines 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, Morgan, Rockefeller....just a few names synonymous with sublime unreachable wealth that germinated from these metals. The uses grew as the metals and the technologies for refining them evolved. Skyscrapers, automobiles, giant transatlantic ships, and the human word itself (conducted via the 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 scientific bonus...added value to the wealth of advances bequeathed by the smelting of iron and iron into steel.

The riches this progress engendered flowed 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 magnates and what would soon become the theretofore unheard of middle class would require these perquisites, and cities would order fire escapes, jail cells, and other infrastructural components required of these new centers of production, progress, and population. Through that lens, Barnum was a big fish. 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.

E. T. Barnum Iron & Wire Works Catalog #770 speaks for itself as it reveals the products the company produced in its day, but it is worth following with examples of what remains of Barnums stock in trade today as well.

Interestingly, from a 21st Century perspective, the most identifiable physical evidence of Barnums existence remain their jail cells. Their marquees and fire escapes, benches and statuary still dot the country, but the jails, all of which had engraved Barnum names plates attached, formally heralded their history and heritage.

On May 16 1902 the city council instructed the clerk to look for steel cage jails and get pricing. On June 6 1902 Papers pertaining to the plans and specifications of the jail cell was turned over to the financial 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 Detroit Michigan. On February 20 1903 W. L. Hutton was paid $8.00 for painting the new jail and R. L. Bailey was paid $2.25 for paint.

Late 19th Century jail pail, produced by Barnum intended for use as an in-cell latrine by inmates.

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

Smithsonian Institution

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 stands behind him, to the boys proper left. She is barefoot, wears a kerchief over her head, and a loose-fitting, kneelength, 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 top of the umbrella. The piece was damaged 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 American Art Museum.

Slatington, Pennsylvania Fireman Fountain

A fireman holds a young baby draped in a white sheet in his proper left hand, and a bronze lantern with his proper right hand. The fireman wears a uniform, with blue coat and pants with gold trim, and a red firemans hat. On the front there is a spout and horse trough and, on the back, an operational water fountain.

Statue by Fisk Iron Works, fountain by E.T. Barnum Wire & Iron Works - 1909. Sculpture: 7x3x2. Base: 6-3x5x5. Inscription on front of base beneath fountain:
Furnished by E.T.Barnum, Detroit, Mich. Erected By The Slatington Hose Company No. 1 1909.

Administered by the Borough of Slatington, Located at 550 Main Street, Slatington, Pennsylvania.

Detail of pre-restoration Barnum fountain with plaque at base.

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