Do you remember the game, Button, Button, Whose Got the Button we played at parties as children? It was a popular game and everyone loved trying to guess who the button was given to. Well Muscatine, Iowa, is or was at one time, the pearl button capital of the world. They manufactured 37% of the world's pearl buttons. We visited the button museum to see how it was done.
In the late 1800's a German immigrant trying to begin a career decided to harvest the clam and mussel beds and turn the pearly looking shells into buttons. He would drill plugs and turn them into buttons through a process he perfected. People laughed at him, but he soon proved them wrong. Before long, everyone was jumping on the bandwagon to collect shells and begin their own button making business. The deep and thick beds were soon depleted within thirty to forty years. Many species became extinct and the industry then turned to making plastic buttons. China took over the button business and the factories closed down in the 1960's.
Display cases show the hundreds of varieties and colors of buttons that were once popular. Videos and pictures tell the story of this great industry's rise and fall before we were even born. People loved to collect buttons and sew them on their jackets. Many button collections have been donated to the museum.
We asked the guide how to tell the difference between pearl buttons and plastic ones. She said to hold the button to your cheek. If it was cold, it was a pearl one. There were barrels of plastic buttons we could purchase by the cupful. I held them to my cheek. They also felt cold to the touch.
Our lesson on buttons was in Muscatine.
It's a tidy town with cool things to be seen.
There's a lock, river and grist mill so keen.
With lots to do in this town so nice and clean.
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