A circa 1930s photo of a worker at the Gorham Bronze foundry in Providence, Rhode Island. Until the mid-1970s, bronze was the primary medium for creating cremation urns. During that time urns were finished by hand and were typically created with genune bronze (the alloy of copper and tin). Many metal urns offered presently are imported and are made of brass (the alloy of copper and zinc), with only a handful of domestic companies using hand-finishing techniques, and even fewer crafted in metal
