Clam shell drilled for button blanks
2022.58.20
Clamming the Kalamazoo to supply the button-production industry. Sewing buttons on to cards was a form of piece work often done in the home to generate extra income. The Holland newspaper reported on July 7, 1910, "Quite an industry in gathering of clam shells up the Kalamazoo River in Saugatuck is being established. The shells bring something like $16.00* per ton in the Detroit market, where they are manufactured into pearl buttons and other useful ornamental articles for the general market. A number of valuable pearls have also been obtained." *$16 was the equivalent of $522 in 2024 dollars
Industry and manufacturing
Winthers, Sally
Mollusk
3 in
4 in
Sec 3E Shelf S17
Minier, Fred 1856-1915
Excerpt from “American Plan" by Celia Gamble House, 2022.16.25 "... the clam fishing was the essence of peace and quiet. The fresh water mussels, locally called "clams,"were thin shelled bi-valves, dark and rough outside and opalescent within. They were piled up in heaps in some secluded spot on the river bank to be sacked later and shipped to the button factory. The clammers rowed slowly along in flat-bottomed boats with their lines dragging hooks along the bottom. Even this job had its thrills, Mary discovered. Just shells for buttons were nothing to the clammers. They lived in hope of finding an occasional fresh water pearl."
In 2022, the author Wade Rouse (using the pen name of Viola Shipman) referred to a fictional Dandy Button Factory in Douglas in his "The Edge of Summer" novel.
08/11/2022
08/16/2024