Button Floozies

I am piggybacking Autena's recent post regarding  The Pearl Button Capital of the World. My friend Tara and I had the pleasure and opportunity in our research of pearl button manufacturing to privately meet with the Pearl Button Museum. Please click here for my blog article.  If you enjoy pearl buttons and the history of them, may I suggest reading Shell Games by Jeffrey S. Copeland.  I am not sure if The Pearl Button Museum carries this book in their gift shop; however, it is carried on Amazon.com .    The Muscatine Journal's review of Shell Games can be found here .  Thanks Autena for sharing your recent post and interest in The Pearl Button Capital of the World! Your post sparked me to recall how much I enjoyed my museum research visit and the book Shell Games.  

I came across this site the other day as I was researching some button cards to post in my Etsy shop.  It was so interesting, I immediately thought of sharing my find with the Button Floozies! Muscatine History and Industry Center It bills itself as the Home of the Pearl Button Museum. How intriguing! It is located in Muscatine, Iowa, of all places--population  approximately 21,000. When I looked up the town (I'm big on research, can you tell?), I found out, via Wikipedia, that it is the only city in the U.S. with that name. Here's another interesting fact: It turns out that the shell buttons were produced so prodigiously there because of the Mississippi River mussels. They were thick and hearty and could withstand the machine cutting.   The buttons were produced there from 1905 to around the early 1960s. Click the above link and you can find out why they eventually ceased production. Here is the Pearl Button Queen of 1946!

That Muscatine , Iowa is the pearl button capital of the world?! My friend, Dawn, and I trekked to Iowa this last weekend to visit Sharon at Sweet Repose and to our surprise, we discovered that Muscatine has a rich history in button making. I couldn't wait to share it with the Floozies! This quaint little town sits right on the Mississippi on the Illinois border. Love this great little boat. Here's a pic of the paddle complete with pics of buttons! And lots of the shops and restaurants carried the button theme. I loved this great gate. And I had to bring Sharon a picture frame packed with lots of buttons, including some of pearl. How was I to know when constructing this that these buttons may have been making a great big circle back home (got em from my mother-in-law in Alabama). Sharon and her business partner call their company White and they are the two white girls, lovers of buttons and all things with rich pasts to tell. The next time you're around Iowa Ci...