With the success of the Lippincott button factory, smaller cutting shops emerged around Milton.

The Excelsior Pearl Button Works on Atlantic Street (now Cave Neck Road) was managed by Harmon Lewis, who had previously managed the larger Lippincott Button Factory.

At its peak, Excelsior employed between 30-35 workers.

The workers at Excelsior included men who cut the buttons, as well as women who served as sorters and office staff.

Cutting shops ranged in size from one-man outfits to more sophisticated operations employing several dozen men.

The interior of cutting shops commonly featured machines arranged below a row of windows.

Task lighting, sometimes consisting of a lone hanging bulb, provided a powerful light source as the light waned during the short days of winter.

Buckets of shells and button blanks, tongs for holding shells, saw files, and other tools were scattered atop the cutters bench.

Today, piles of cut shell remnants excavated during building projects are often the only reminders of the button cutting industry.

The building that housed the Excelsior Pearl Works Button Factory was razed in the 1990s.

Pictured in the photo are Lewis McGee (kneeling in front) and Lloyd McGee (back row, far right). Can you help us identify others?

Collection of the Milton Historical Society.

This photograph of Arthur Burton Donovan, a home cutter of mother-of-pearl buttons, was taken in December 1974 long after the button industry had died out in Milton Delaware.

By the late 1960s, there were only a handful of button cutters still working in the area.

Hard-working men like Donovan, Preston Chandler and his son, as well as Harold and Harley Wilkerson continued to cut mother-of-pearl buttons for many years after the factories were gone.

Donovan was formerly employed at the Lippincott Button Factory, Milton’s largest.

He also had a button cutting machine in his own shed where he pressed buttons. He lived on the west side of Union Street in Milton.

The button blanks these men created we shipped to the J. Carucci Button Company in New Jersey for finishing. Carucci supplied major fashion houses with pearl buttons for haute couture.

By 1984, there were only 2 companies in the United States that distributed mother-of-pearl buttons.

With the rise of mass production and more efficient technology, Preston Chandler, Sr., a local button cutter who worked well into the 1980s cutting buttons bemoaned, “then a machine was invented that makes as many buttons in one day as a thousand men can make in a year.”

Photograph courtesy of Atwood Timmons. Collection of Milton Historical Society.

Have you ever considered what it takes to make mother-of-pearl buttons?

Today, most buttons found on clothing purchased in retail stores are the product of high tech factories.

Metal and plastic buttons are created through an injection molding process.

Not too long ago, however, buttons were crafted through a multi-step, labor intensive process that was truly global.

Because of Milton Delaware’s proximity to the Atlantic coast, it might be assumed the shells used in button making were of local origin. However, the abalone shells employed in cutting mother-of-pearl buttons hailed from the Pacific Rim countries like Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, and Japan.

Shipped to New York as ballast, they arrived in large mahogany crates, the origin stenciled in large black letters on the side of each box, “PRODUCT OF AUSTRALIA.”

Before the shell could be cut, it soaked in water for at least one week.

Without proper soaking, the brittle shell could splinter or cause extreme wear on cutting saws.

This photograph shows the shells being soaked in preparation for cutting, the first step in making mother-of-pearl buttons.

Photograph courtesy of the Delaware Public Archives.

During the eighteenth century, European settlers built vessels on the banks of the Broadkill River in Milton Delaware.

The forests along the river and its tributaries contained plentiful lumber for building ships.

Early vessels provided for travel and transportation of products to markets in Lewes, Wilmington, Philadelphia and beyond.

In 1737 the shallop Broad Kill was the first of over two hundred local vessels to register in Philadelphia.

By the early nineteenth century Milton Delaware had permanent shipyards where sloops, schooners and a brigantine were built, all before 1850.

The shipbuilding industry was at its height in the 1870s and 1880s, flourishing into the early 20^th century.

The last ship built in Milton, The Wildcat, was launched in 1915. A combination of steam power, deforestation, and new forms of transportation like the railroad precipitated the decline of the industry.

Beginning in the 1920s this once prosperous town faced a challenging economy.

A fire had destroyed the downtown business corridor in 1909, and new industries like canning, button making, and holly wreath making emerged.

Button cutting quickly became a source of year-round income for townspeople.

After 1890, pearl buttons represented half the total production of all buttons made, with the United States button production tripling by 1914.

The Depression era saw an increase in the sale of buttons, with consumers opting to repair last year’s fashions rather than purchase new clothing.

The George A. Lippincott Button Factory was located on Union Street in the heart of the town, in the building across from Lofland’s gas station (pictured on right).

Lippincott’s was the largest of the button factories, employing between 100-120 workers.

As many as seven other shops existed in Milton and employed between 4 and 58 people at any one time.

Countless other individuals cut buttons in backyard sheds and were paid by the pound as piecework.

The button making industry in Milton Delaware saw its heyday from the 1920s into the 1950s.

By the late 1950s, the American-made pearl button industry buckled under the pressure of foreign competition, changing fashion, the cost of transporting shell, and the development and refinement of plastic buttons.

Courtesy of the Delaware Public Archives.

Because of Milton Delaware’s proximity to the Atlantic coast, it might be assumed the shells used in button making there were of local origin.

However, the abalone, or mother-of-pearl, shells employed in the button making process hailed from Pacific Rim countries like Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, and Japan.

Shipped to New York as ballast, they arrived in large mahogany crates, the origin stenciled in large black letters on the side of each box, “PRODUCT OF AUSTRALIA”.

Before a shell could be cut, it soaked in “Boadkill River” water for at least one week. Without proper soaking, a brittle shell could splinter or cause extreme wear on cutting saws .

A basic button cutting machine was turned by a lathe.

The lathe, at first treadle-powered and later powered by electricity, turned a drill-like mechanism.

Cutters maneuvered tubular saws made of steel through the shell to produce “blanks”.

These blanks would then go through a multi-step process that included splitting, polishing, and drilling on their way to becoming buttons.

Once the blanks were cut, they were placed in sieve-like wooden trays to shake out the dust and debris.

Then the blanks were sorted and prepared to be sent to finishing plants in New York, New Jersey, and Maine for the final steps in the button making process.

At the finishing plants the blanks were polished and the holes were drilled for fastening onto clothing.

Women and young girls sewed the finished product onto cards for retail sale in 5-and-dime stores.

Courtesy of the Delaware Public Archives.

Hum. Buzz. Plink…..Hum. Buzz. Plink…..Hum. Buzz. Plink….. These were the sounds of the busy George A. Lippincott Button Factory in Milton Delaware. Over 100 workers were employed at the factory, located in the heart of the town on Union Street.

The machines at the Lippincott Button Factory were operated on a lathe-driven line (pictured here).

Cutters nameuvered tubular saws made of steel through a shell to produce “blanks” (circular pieces of shell) with one rough side and one smooth side.

The tubular saws created blanks of different sizes, from size 14 to size 30 (button sizes are commonly measured in lignes, a unit of measurement being 1/40th of an inch).

These blanks would go through a multi-step process that included splitting, polishing, and drilling on their way to becoming buttons.

The Lippincott Button Factory was the largest of the button blank cutting enterprises in Milton Delaware.

As many as seven other shops existed here and employed between 4 and 58 people at any one time.

Countless other individuals cut buttons in backyard sheds and were paid by the pound as piecework.

Button cutters faced a variety of occupational injuries and hazards.

Workers could be cut by the sharp tines of the saws.

Long hours standing or sitting hunched in front of machines undoubtedly caused back and neck troubles.

Despite being redirected away from the machinist by a vacuum-suctioned pipe, calcium dust from the shell was ever-present.

Courtesy of the Delaware Public Archives.

In addition to Milton Delaware’s largest button factory, the George A. Lippincott Button Factory, as many as seven other button shops existed here.

These smaller shops employed between 4 and 58 people at any one time. These shops included: The Excelsior Pearl Button Works on Atlantic Street, Richards and Tyndall on Railroad Avenue, Messick and Willey on Chestnut Street, Albert Edginton’s shop on Collins Street, Nelson Rogers’ on Bay Avenue, and George Warrington’s shop on Magnolia Street.

Countless other individuals cut buttons in backyard sheds and were paid by the pound as piecework.

This aerial view of  Milton Delaware dates from the 1950s, when button cutting was beginning to wane.

The town was like many places in America. You could purchase groceries and sundries from a variety of merchants along a main street (Union and Federal Streets), stop in at the bank, see a movie at the theatre or get a trim at the barber. The Milton Volunteer Fire Company, Odd Fellows Lodge, and Goshen Methodist Church were (and are) central to village life.

Over 198 structures currently make up the town’s historic district. In 2007, Milton Delaware celebrated its 200^th anniversary.

Collection of the Milton Historical Society. Given in Memory of Dr. William E. Douglas and Family.

The George A. Lippincott Button Factory was the largest of the button blank cutting enterprises in Milton, Delaware.

This c. 1930 photograph shows over 100 employees in front of the button factory located on Union Street.

The button cutting machines at the Lippincott Factory were operated on a lathe-driven line.

Cutters maneuvered tubular saws made of steel through a shell to produce “blanks”.

These blanks would go through a multi-step process that included splitting, polishing, and drilling on their way to becoming buttons.

Once the blanks were cut, they were placed in sieve-like wooden trays to shake out the dust and debris.

Then the blanks were sorted and prepared to be sent to finishing plants in New York, New Jersey, and Maine.

At the finishing plants the blanks were polished and the holes were drilled for fastening onto clothing.

A good button cutter could cut anywhere from 100 to 300 pounds a week.

Since workers were paid by how many pieces they produced, they wanted to produce as many blanks as possible with as little waste as possible.

Skill and careful attention of the cutter was required to obtain the optimal number of blanks per shell.

While this depended on the size of the shell and the blank being cut, on average 70-90 blanks could be cut from each shell.

When workers returned home from the button factory, they continued to punch buttons into the evening on hand lathes in their backyard sheds, supplementing their incomes.

Collection of the Milton Historical Society. Gift of Ray Dodd.