Name/Title
Mother of Pearl Left Over from Making ButtonsEntry/Object ID
2024.36.01Description
A piece of mother of pearl (nacre) from which buttons have been cut.Context
Starting in the mid-1800s, manufacturers began to make buttons for garments, etc., from nacre, also known as mother of pearl. Nacre comes from the inside of mollusk shells. Larger shells have more narce, smaller shells less. Nacre buttons became less common in the mid-1900s, when they were largely replaced by plastic. There were several button factories in Connecticut, which was also known for its textile industry. Today, there is a small, family-run button factory in Willington, CT -- Masinda's Button Shop -- that makes nacre buttons using traditional 19th-century machinery. The Mill Museum visited Masinda's Button Shop a few years ago and produced the following video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHzXqVnf7pI. The original Masinda button factory was opened by William Masinda in 1903 and operated until 1938 using water power, the heyday of the nacre button industry. The shop was recently restored by Mark Masinda and Paul Weigold.
The donor writes: "I checked with my daughter, who lives in Willimantic, and she tells me that the piece came from the grounds of the (then abandoned) button factory in Gurleyville [CT, a village in the town of Mansfield, CT] and that we got it when her older sister was in high school. [The older sister] graduated from [high school] in 1981. People from Storrs [CT] often scavenged for broken buttons on the grounds, and there were many, but a chunk of mother of pearl was a rare find. The button factory has been written about in the newsletters of the Mansfield Historical Society and the old building has been renovated and became a family home over the years."
Several observers have identified the mollusk that provided the nacre as an abalone.
To learn more about nacre and how it has been used in industry, see this Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nacre.
This article describes a small nacre button factory once located near Boston, MA: https://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/shells-tell-the-story-of-long-gone-button-industry/.Collection
General CollectionLexicon
Nomenclature 4.0
Nomenclature Tertiary Object Term
ButtonNomenclature Secondary Object Term
Fastener, TextileNomenclature Primary Object Term
NotionNomenclature Sub-Class
Needleworking EquipmentNomenclature Class
Textileworking T&ENomenclature Category
Category 04: Tools & Equipment for MaterialsDimensions
Width
4.5 cmDepth
1.5 cmLength
9 cmLocation
Location
Exhibit Room
Thread Mill Square* Untyped Location
Main Museum BuildingCategory
ExhibitDate
November 7, 2024Provenance
Provenance Detail
Donors found near their home in Storrs, CT.Created By
historian@millmuseum.orgCreate Date
November 7, 2024Updated By
historian@millmuseum.orgUpdate Date
November 10, 2024
