21–30 of 54 posts
I recently learned about using mussels for buttons when I visited the Mississippi River Museum in Dubuque, Iowa and have been wondering since: can Zebra Mussels be used for buttons? That would create (even more) economic incentive to go after them.
I recently learned about using mussels for buttons when I visited the Mississippi River Museum in Dubuque, Iowa and have been wondering since: can Zebra Mussels be used for buttons? That would create (even more) economic incentive to go after them.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> TLDR: Consequently many freshwater mussel species are now extinct The problem with the DR part of TLDR is that you miss a lot of detail. There are more factors than just the button industry. > To survive past the larvae stage, they must become parasites that attach themselves to fish. If the fish populations are declining, that oftentimes has an indirect effect on mussel abundance > the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers…
It's sad, but the entire culture is devolving into requiring a dumbed down summary or tl;dr version of everything.
Is the fact that he was of German descent material to how the events transpired? Not sure why it's even mentioned in the headline.
It's significant that "Boepple immigrated to the United States in the late 1880s, resolving to search for more of these freshwater mussels."
And he was German. Lots of Germans emigrated to the USA, especially around that time. so it's important context of who this man was
I recently learned about using mussels for buttons when I visited the Mississippi River Museum in Dubuque, Iowa and have been wondering since: can Zebra Mussels be used for buttons? That would create (even more) economic incentive to go after them.
This has happened many times throughout history.
Is the fact that he was of German descent material to how the events transpired? Not sure why it's even mentioned in the headline.
The buttons are pretty too
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> TLDR: Consequently many freshwater mussel species are now extinct The problem with the DR part of TLDR is that you miss a lot of detail. There are more factors than just the button industry. > To survive past the larvae stage, they must become parasites that attach themselves to fish. If the fish populations are declining, that oftentimes has an indirect effect on mussel abundance > the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers…
Regarding the dams, I recommend the book "Cadillac Desert" to anyone even remotely curious about the background and scale of water projects in the US. It's not boring despite the what the subject matter might suggest.
Is the fact that he was of German descent material to how the events transpired? Not sure why it's even mentioned in the headline.
For Boepple, buttons were the family business. At his shop in Germany, he had learned to craft them out of wood, shell, horn and bone. But pearl buttons brought in the biggest profits. When a German tariff put him out of business, Boepple became one of the nearly 1.5 million Germans who immigrated to America in the 1880s. “They each brought their own skills,” Joy says. “Mr. Boepple was a button maker.”