News & Past Events

New pearl-button exhibit is first-class show of our heritage

December 15, 2006
By the Muscatine Journal Editorial Board
About 18 months ago, Melanie Alexander, executive director of the Muscatine History and Industry Center, and the museum’s board of directors launched a project with a singular mission: turn the existing pearl-button exhibit into a larger, first-class presentation.
By all appearances, mission accomplished.
The extensively renovated and expanded exhibit opened to the public Friday evening during the Holiday Stroll. We hope visitors spread the word to others that this place is well worth at least a couple of hours of your time.
There’s a lot to see and do. The exhibit captures in vivid, entertaining detail the clamming and button-making processes for which Muscatine was the world’s leader in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Colorful graphics. Interactive activities for kids and adults. Videos with remarkable footage of clamming boat operations. Oral and written histories. And more.
This triumph represents the collaboration and support of many people and organizations.
Among them was the new partnership forged between the boards of the History and Industry Center and the Muscatine Art Center. That led to the Art Center loaning its entire permanent collection related to the button industry to the pearl button exhibit.
The project’s approximate half-million-dollar cost was covered by a Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust challenge grant (55 percent), other state and local grants and a fundraising campaign.
There’s not a nickel of tax money involved in this project.
There are more attractions at the History and Industry Center and development of others is not done, not by a long shot.
The HNI Corporation display of furniture and machinery representing the evolution of this vital Muscatine industry opened earlier this year.
Planned for completion, probably by the end of 2007, are exhibits for several other local industries and businesses: Monsanto, Musco Lighting and Stanley Consultants.
The pearl-button industry is a huge part of Muscatine’s heritage. Thousands of local residents today know or are descendants of people who worked in or operated businesses that turned mussel shells into buttons shipped all over the world.
Now they can relive and relearn this history in a most appropriate and impressive setting. It’s a wonderful addition to the growing number of cultural and recreational amenities in Muscatine.
The people behind Muscatine pearl button exhibit project
Project manager: Melanie Alexander
Historian: Dr. Jennifer Pustz (contracted to research working conditions in button factories — research funded by a grant through Humanities Iowa)
Research evaluator: Dr. Shelton Stromquist — labor historian at the University of Iowa (evaluation of research was a requirement of Humanities Iowa grant)
Pearl Button Exhibit Committee: Kathy Keane Bankhead, Tom Bankhead, Pamela Barry, Max Churchill, Virginia Cooper, Clyde Evans, Bob Howard, Barbara Longtin, Jay McKee, Mary Alice Sessler, and Steve Teraberry
Mussel content: Dr. Tatsuaki Nakato, Jon Christensen, and Bernard Schonhoff, Lucille A. Carver Mississippi Riverside Environmental Research Station
Exhibit Fundraising Committee: Dennis McDonald (co-chair), Evelyn Schauland (co-chair), Stan Askren, Kathy Keane Bankhead, Oscar Berryman, Gary Carlson, Clyde Evans, Helen Howe, Stan Howe, Mark Huddleston, Scott Ingstad, Marv Krieger, Jay McKee, Jim Nepple, Mayor Dick O’Brien, Lisa Sievers, Dick Stanley, Mary Jo Stanley, Ed Weber, Jr.
Building renovation: Tom Bankhead, Scott Lesnet, and Glenn Stelzner
Exhibit design and fabrication: Split Rock Studios, St. Paul, Minn.
Construction of button cutting shop and button factory: Bob Hein Construction of Muscatine
Historic film used in video: Ron Schmarje and Marvin Krieger