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Introduction to a Mount Hope cemetery
Mount Hope cemetery is located in Rochester, New York. It is a place filled with many gravestones. The history began in 1832 where many deaths had been buried and filled the city's old original graveyards in somewhere. By that time, many died from cholera and yellow fever. The deaths filled in the graveyards. The issue of overcrowded burial grounds forced Rochester to find another location and to create more rural cemeteries. After finding a new location, there they established and named "Mount Hope" cemetery as the need for a bigger burial ground in 1838. Through observing the cemetery many stones are made of marble, limestone, and recently granite for replacement. I had selected Alexander Millener as personal monument for the research, because this is just not a tombstone but a metal monument which is a memorial. The monument of Alexander Millener has different material from other common tombstone. It is substance of white bronze painted in zinc.
Please pay a visit to this link below for more info from the original document by Mount Hope Cemetery.
The tombstone of Alexander Millener
The story of Alexander Millener 
Alexander Millener as known as one of the last men of Revolution born in Quebec, Canada on March 14 in 1760. In his early age, he was George Washington 's favorite drummer boy. There was a good friendship between Alex and George. Mr. Washington actually gave the young Alex a flask to drink. Alex had met Lady Washington. Along the battles, he had experienced in the service of army for six years. One of his experiences is that he got a wound losing blood, but he fortunately survived from the battle. Afterward, he served in the American navy in the War of 1812. A report was said that Alexander Millener was a happy man that nothing could bother him as long as he kept dancing and singing. At his one hundred years old, there was a big event celebrating for his honor in Rochester, New York and he still could be able to performance his drumming talent and play drumming at the event. He died on March 13, 1865. Many had been inspired by him. He is the one of veterans of the War for American Independence to have lived long enough to be remembered.
Biography of Alexander Millener
Description and Identification of materials
In earlier time, many tombstones at the Mt. Hope cemetery are made of limestone and marble, but granite is the better selection for the general tombstones later. Granite rarely have any kind of stresses or deterioration. It is strength and hard material. However, this monument of Alexander Millener seems to have some bluish gray markers made by zinc. This one is molded metal as known as white bronze, not stone. It is pure zinc protecting the metal underneath. According to the report from Mt Hope, "the form of this marker was inspired by the house-shaped monuments built by the Minoans of Crete to house the soul of the departed. It is the most massive of the zinc markers in Mt. Hope", the citation said. The panel on monument is engraved in these words "Alexander Millener, a solider of the revolution, died Mar, 13, 1865, aged 103 years. His faithful wife, Abigail Barton died July 23, 1863, aged 81 years". The word "zinc" begun in early times of Romans, Chinese, and East Indians that they had all used zinc. Later, in the nineteenth century, a company from Bridgeport, Connecticut developed manufacturing process with casting to use zinc. This Monumental Bronze Company became a successful organization as known as Representative American Company. Over the time, there was many job losses leading to end of Monumental Bronze Company due to "increased taxation and governmental restrictions". The company stopped making and casting the memorials in 1914. It lasted for 69 years until 1939 shutting the company to the financial of World War I.
Conservation and Evaluation of Object Preservation 
As you see the picture above, it shows you the faded color of the stone. Its color was originally bluish/gray. It became dull gray over the long time. It seems to have be affected by weathering. The second picture on right shows the two panels. Comparing both panels, the second panel on right looks more damaged than other first panel on left. The second panel have been weathered by snowing. Snow is the form of crystalline water ice. Probably the snow caused the frosting to whiten up the monument. The panel might be stained by dirt and snow. Assumed that the person who worked at Mt. Hope cemetery was too late to clean the stain off the stone, because the stain was left there for a long time. It might be the best not to attempt to brush salt crystal from snow. There is no sign of degradation such as frost expanding or frost crackling. Why is zinc the choice for the monument? In general, metals do corrode easily. Zinc is the simple answer is to stop the corrosion of metals many metals As zincs deteriorate, they build up a coating that renders them less effective. This is why it is recommended to replace zincs when they are half deteriorated. Zinc has a zinc oxide coating that protects from the air and the weathering. It is much better aging and weathering than other materials such as limestone and marble. However, it might be damaged by acid rain. According to Mt. Hope saying that "due to its brittleness, breakage and seam separation are the most common damages to these monuments followed by corrosion and 'creep.' Repair work for these problems requires professional conservators and is very expensive". The creep is when the Also, the way it looks along white bronze painted in zinc is appealing the visitors who visits the cemetery. It is evaluated as a good condition, as long as it is still stand tall.
Academic references
The Conservation of American War Memorials Made of Zinc
Carol A. Grissom and Ronald S. Harvey
Journal of the American Institute for Conservation
Vol. 42, No. 1, Architecture Issue (Spring, 2003), pp. 21-38
Published by: The American Institute for Conservation of Historic & Artistic Works
Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3180054