Bronzed Baby Shoes Are Back Again
April 18, 2023
source: Etsy
Bronzing of baby shoes is a ritual that has been carried out by families for many years now all over the globe. The process entails the application of metallic plating on the first pair of shoes of a child as a way of keeping the memory of the early stages of childhood. The history of bronzing baby shoes can be described as a rather long one and it goes back to the early years of the twentieth century.
The History Of Bronzing Baby Shoes
The process known as bronzing baby shoes began as early as the 1930s with the company known as the American Bronze Corporation. They started a service in which parents could send in their child’s first pair of shoes for bronzing. It was then that the company would apply a bronze plating on the shoes and thus keep them as a memory.
When this was done, bronzing baby shoes was something that was seen to be luxurious and something that only the rich could afford. The process was rather popular, but not very widespread and available only for certain people, until the 1950s. At this time, many companies started to introduce bronze services at a more affordable price and thus, every family could preserve their child’s first shoes.
Bronzing baby shoes also started to gain much popularity in many households because parents felt that this was a means of preserving their child’s infancy. It was considered as a means of rejoicing the significant events of childhood like, when a child starts to walk.
Today, bronzing of baby shoes is not the only custom but other baby products such as pacifiers, rattles and even umbilical cords are bronzed. Though it may seem a little odd to some, many families continue to do the practice because they want to have a record of how their child grew up in the initial years of his or her life.