As many of you may
know, my passion is charmstrings. I have
been collecting them since May 2003 when I purchased my first one. I have since then added 71 other strings to
my collection. Charmstrings compose the majority of my button collection. I
love the idea of stringing buttons, making memories that will travel through
time to future generations. I also like the lore of the charmstring...swapping
and adding buttons to a string with the 1000th button being given, hopefully,
by the man you will marry.
Therefore, imagine my surprise and delight
when randomly browsing ebay last September I typed in the search words ‘memory
string’, and while paging down through the mainly book and music offerings, I came across a small antique photograph of
“Miss Jennie Moxley and her Memory String, Year 1867.” The photo was taken at Ecker’s Gallery in
Louisville Kentucky. It was meant to be!
The
original photograph is a diminutive 2 3/8 wide by 3 3/4 tall in sepia tones. It
is very clear and shows Miss Jennie holding her string which appears to be in a
long loop against the skirt of her dress. She must have been very proud of her
memory string as she chose that among all her possessions to be photographed
with.
I
feel very fortunate to own Miss Jennie’s photograph. It is a true treasure in
my collection as it not only documents that young ladies were stringing buttons
in 1867 but that they also prized their memory or charmstrings highly.
I
will continue to collect button strings and preserve them to be admired by
future generations.
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