Page 9 - May1997

May 1997 NNNONA]L ts{JIIlION B{-IN,N,ETNN 15

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A New Discovery and ldentification

(TWo new BBBB's, too!)
Marge Thwing moved from New Jersey to Maine last year and reports
that she has been finding buttons and button bargains in
our northemmost state.Recentlv. she found two
previously unknown buttons of Harriet Beecher
Stowe and her home in On's Island, Maine.
Included in this purchase was a postcard with a
picture of the Stowe home "The Pearl House" and
an inserted picture of Stowe herself. The back of
the oostcard reads:
"Private Mailing Card Authorizedby Act of
Congress on May 19, 1898"
lt required a one-cent stamp.
The buttons are heart bordered lithographs with brass backs and self
shanks.
Harriet Beecher Stowe (l8ll-1896) was a famous
American writer and abolitionist, who wrote "LJncle
Tom's Cabin", one of the most powerful novels in
American literature. This heart-wrenching
indictment of slavery did much to crystallize
militant anti-slavery sentiment in the North and is
considered an important factor inciting the Civil
War. It is one of those books that chaneed
American history.
-MWS