The abundant metal and mineral resources of the Southeast Missouri Lead District arguably had an even greater impact on the state’s economic development than clay. The confluence region contains the world’s highest concentration of galena (the natural mineral form of lead) as well as significant quantities of iron and zinc. Proximity to these large deposits to the south, coupled with St. Louis’s transportation networks, instigated regional enterprises of national significance, from cast-iron furniture and stoves in the 1850s to the resurgence of blacksmithing as an artistic medium in the 1960s. Among the most important of these was the National Enameling and Stamping Company. Established in the 1870s to produce graniteware cooking implements, the company’s founders eventually established the town of Granite City, Illinois, which soon became a nationally recognized center for iron and steel manufacturing.
Looking Prompts
- If you could choose only one word to describe this object, what would it be? What do you see that inspired your word?
- What more can you discover?
- Parlor cookstoves like this were used to cook food and to heat homes. What clues can you find that help you to understand how it functioned? What comparisons can you make between this stove and contemporary stoves or heating devices? If you were able to use this stove to cook or bake, what would you want to make?
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About this Artwork
Gracefully curved legs and elaborate scroll, shield, and scallop patterns embellish this cast-iron stove. Used for both heating and cooking, it would have been a decorative and practical addition to an 1800s parlor. An ornate lid with an oversize handle covers a cooking surface on the stove’s top. A baking compartment is inside the upper hinged doors, while fuel burned behind the lower doors.
Excelsior Stove Works was the largest stove manufacturer in the country in the second half of the 1800s. It shipped stoves nationwide from its St. Louis riverfront factory.
Between 1840 and 1940 St. Louis and Belleville, Illinois, numbered among the nation’s largest manufacturers of cast-iron stoves. By the 1870s Excelsior Stove Works, established in St. Louis by Giles F. Filley in 1849, dominated the industry. Having built a nationally known brand in the 1850s, the company continued to innovate with designs such as the Parlor Cookstove, No. 7, which served both decorative and functional purposes. In addition to adding decoration though its patterned surface, the stove would have both heated the room and provided a means for cooking.
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Image Credits
Made by Excelsior Stove Works, St. Louis, Missouri, 1849–1943; Parlor Cookstove, No. 7, c.1860–1869; cast iron; 39 x 28 x 22 inches; Courtesy of the Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis 2021.189