Negotiating tradition and technology: Benziger Brothers' trade catalogues of church goods, 1879-1937

Abstract

This thesis contributes to a small, but growing, body of scholarly work on the material culture of American Catholicism. It assumes the central importance of the trade catalogue as a layered cultural object. ☐ Benziger Brothers was a New York firm defined by the material needs of Catholic churches and parishioners in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In 1873 it began publishing illustrated catalogues of its church ornaments. An extensive search of public archives has yielded thirteen such catalogues, which date from 1879 to 1937. These objects serve as the basis of an investigation into the contest between tradition and technology. Specific attention is drawn to lighting and the impact of modern systems upon the conservative Church and its suppliers. This thesis finds that the catalogues, within the context of American Catholic practice, afford a microcosmic view of the give and take that occurs when any culture modernizes.