Gorham Manufacturing Company
The Gorham Manufacturing Company was one of the largest[1] American manufacturers of sterling and silverplate and a foundry for bronze sculpture.[2]
Major commissions[edit]
The White House has used Gorham silver services during many administrations. Mary Todd Lincoln purchased an impressive tea and flatware service for use in the White House in 1859. The tea service was presented to the National Museum of American History in 1957.[16] Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant asked Gorham to commemorate the country's one-hundredth anniversary with a spectacular Century Vase that contained over 2,000 oz (57,000 g) of sterling silver, and in 1899, it produced a grand "loving cup" composed of 70,000 dimes was designed for Admiral George Dewey. Colonel Henry Jewett Furber, president of Universal Life Insurance Company of New York, placed the largest single commission Gorham ever received for what became known as the famous Furber service. The opulent 740-piece service represents Victorian era dining at its most elaborate. The monumental silver and parcel-gilt "Neptune" epergne made for Furber as part of this service was displayed at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876. Textron donated a large portion of the service along with other pieces to the Rhode Island School of Design Museum and they are on display in the permanent collection of American decorative arts.[17]
In 1907, Gorham created an elaborate silver service for the battleship USS Rhode Island. When the Rhode Island was decommissioned following World War I, the US Navy returned the service to the state for public display. It is now on display in the State Room of the Rhode Island State House.[18] The George W. Bush family chose Gorham's Chantilly as the flatware service on Air Force One.
In 1910, the AEIC (Association of Edison Illuminating Companies) commissioned a small bronze Bust of Thomas Edison (3.75" tall) from Gorham Designers Wm. C. & E. E. Codman. Edison personally attended the 26th Annual Convention at the Hotel Frontenac on Sep. 7 and all 173 Attendees received the one-pound Souvenirs. Several of the little sculptures still survive (one in Glenmont, NJ), and historian Allen Koenigsberg is still seeking the paper trail for their creation.
In 1921, the company bought the rights to The Hiker, a statue by Theo Alice Ruggles Kitson. It commemorates the American soldiers who fought in the Spanish–American War, the Boxer Rebellion and the Philippine–American War. Over the next 44 years Gorham cast at least 50 Hiker statues.[19] A copy can be found in Providence's Kennedy Plaza, and there are several in nearby Massachusetts towns including Lynn, Wakefield, Haverhill, Taunton and Fall River.
Gorham artisans also sculpted the famous monument of George Washington in the Capitol's Rotunda, the statue of Theodore Roosevelt that overlooks the Museum of Natural History in New York, and the famous Independent Man which tops the Rhode Island State House.
Gorham designed a number of elaborate trophies for sporting events, including the Borg-Warner Trophy for the Indianapolis 500, designed by Robert J. Hill.
