BRONZE BABY SHOES

Does this ring a bell?

We don’t do it today. Perhaps the generation of the thirties, forties, and fifties were more nostalgic.

This memento was an idea that started in 1930. A Cleveland housewife and kindergarten teacher by the name of Violet Shinbach saw a department store window display that featured a bronzed pair of baby shoes.

She loved this idea and felt that new mothers would want to preserve their baby’s first shoes in this way. She started a company called Bron-Shoe Co. in 1934 and it became a profitable business for her. Would you believe that 14,000,000 baby shoes were ordered? It became a keepsake or tradition over the years. The wear and tear of a child’s first year’s steps were made into an art object for eternity. The company was in existence until 2018, which is when they closed their doors.

What happened? No one wanted their baby’s shoes immortalized anymore?

I am one of the 14,000,000 whose baby shoes were captured and preserved, as displayed above. Thank you, Mom!

Do any more of our readers have bronzed baby shoes?