Muscatine former "Pearl Button Capital of the World"

Boepple Button Company

Boepple Button Company




John Boepple Risked it all when he packed his family up and left Germany for the United States. Learn more in this video.

LEARN HOW THE HUMBLE BUTTON PUT OUR QUIET RIVER TOWN ON THE MAP!

In the early 1900s, Muscatine, Iowa was known as “the Pearl Button Capital of the World,” manufacturing more than 1.5 billion mother-of-pearl buttons annually, and 3/8ths of all pearl buttons sold in the world. Drawn from the natural bounty of mussels in the Mighty Mississippi, nearly everyone in town was employed by the luxury pearl button industry in one form or another. Our museum tells the story of the immigrant-entrepreneurs, the laborers, the buttons, and even the mussels!

Muscatine Pearl Button History

SOURCE: https://muscatinehistory.org/

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