From Quarry to Cemetery Monuments
Monumental Works & Shops, Tools & Equipment, & Monument Displays
Sandblasting Designs onto Cemetery Stones
According to the very interesting section, “Abrasive Blasting,” presented on Wikipedia: “The first abrasive blasting process was patented by Benjamin Chew Tilghman on October 18, 1870.” If you are interesting in reading more about the history of sandblasting, there is another interesting article presented on eHow.com, “About Sandblasters,” written by Hannah Rice Myers.
Below are photographs of sandblasting equipment and patterns taken from monumental magazines published in the 1920’s. I was given a tour of the sandblasting operation at at a local cemetery, and the equipment used today looks similar to that in the magazine articles below.
Pangborn Sand-Blast for Memorial Art Carving & Lettering Ad (from Granite Marble & Bronze, Nov. 1926, pp. 5) |
Pangborn Sand Blast Equipment Advertisement (from Monumental News, Nov. 1926, pp. 549) |
Suggestions for Sand Blast Name Panels (from Monumental News, Aug., 1926, pp. 522) |
Cemetery Stone / Monument Displays
Below are three displays of cemetery stones by various companies in the 1920s.
 Interior of the stock-room of the Georgia marble-finishing works, Canton, Georgia |
Monumental Display of the Melrose Granite Co., St. Cloud, Minnesota, from the Granite Marble Bronze magazine, 1921 |
Vermont Marble Company Exhibit, Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, California 1915 (postcard photo) |
 Jones Bros. Monument Display, Vermont, from the Monument and Cemetery Review magazine, 1923 |
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