Tag Archives: National Button Week

Two talks for National Button Week

Around Town, Dance and the other arts, women, , , , , , , , , ,

 

bridge 2014-04-24 23.07.38

For Women’s History Month — and for National Button Week – here is a button that covers both. It is of the Brooklyn Bridge. This article credits its construction to Emily Roebling who took her father-in-law’s drawings and advice from her bedridden husband to direct the workers.

To honor National Button Week and also the 75th anniversary of the New Jersey State Button Society, I will give a talk on how buttons can illuminate local history. This button will be on prominent display — in fact it is in the case at the Lawrence Branch of the Mercer County Library now. Set for Saturday, March 19, at 2 p.m. at the library, the free talk will focus on Theresa Doelger Kuser, doyenne of Kuser Farm Mansion, and I will be joined by Sally Lane, her great granddaughter.

Perhaps I’ll see you there — or at the Women’s College Club of Princeton on Monday, March 21, at 1 p.m. at All Saint’s Church. Guests are welcome, and it will be a different subject, “Every Button has a Story: What story do your buttons tell?” The 133-year-old Brooklyn Bridge is billed as “the most well built bridge in the city” and surely it has stories to tell.

Or perhaps I’ll inspire you to come to the NJSBS Show and Sale on Saturday, May 7 in Titusville. 

Got buttons? this could be for you

Around Town, Dance and the other arts, , , , ,

Bennett O'Donnell Castree

The New Jersey State Button Society (NJSBS) will celebrate the start of its 75th anniversary year with a free program, “The Button Sampler,” on Saturday, January 9, at 2 p.m. at the Lawrence headquarters of the Mercer County Library System, 2751 Brunswick Pike. If you are curious about buttons you own and want to attend, call the library at  609-989-6920, email me, or email lawprogs@mcl.org — or just show up. A similar program will be Saturday, March 19.

The program honors the book “The Button Sampler,” co-written by the late Lillian Smith Albert. A Hightstown resident, she founded the NJSBS in 1941, when interest in button collecting began to surge. Through her research and study Albert helped to make button collecting the important hobby which it is today. The members of the state society share an interest in studying, collecting, and preserving clothing buttons, both old and new.

To share their enthusiasm and knowledge, my fellow NJSBS members will tell about favorite buttons and offer help to new collectors. Bring up to a dozen clothing buttons and learn about buttons made from a selection of the dozens of different materials, including black and colored glass, china, plastic, metal, shell, and wood.

There will be another button meeting during National Button Week, on Saturday, March 19, at 2 p.m., so mark your calendars. And the NJSBS will celebrate its Diamond Anniversary at its Show and Competition on Saturday, May 7,  9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Union Fire Company, 1396 River Road (Route 29), Titusville, NJ.