Women at Work in Historic Saugatuck

The history of women working in the 19th century will be the topic of a discussion on Saturday, March 7, at 3 pm in the Westport Library’s McManus Room. Town Curator Kathie Bennewitz, along with Rachel Mercurio, vice president of the Connecticut State Button Society, will speak about the "Women of Saugatuck@Work" in the context of artist Robert L. Lambdin's restored mural of Saugatuck. The program, co-sponsored with the Connecticut State Button Society and the Westport Historical Society, is free and open to the public.

Saugatuck, as depicted in the late Westport artist’s mural “Saugatuck in the 19th Century” displayed at the Westport Historical Society, was home to the company Saugatuck Manufacturing which produced buttons in a building that still stands by the river near the railroad station next to the deep-water dock convenient for delivering products to New York City. The program will focus on the many immigrant women who made a vast array of colorful and creative buttons in the highly competitive industry.

Lambdin’s painting depicting Saugatuck as a center of manufacturing and river commerce in 19th century Westport anchors the Westport Historical Society’s exhibition “Saugatuck @ Work – Haven of Community, Industry, Innovation.” The mural shows the various types of vessels that plied the river over the course of the century, as well as such long-gone landmarks as the Saugatuck Bank (precursor of Westport Bank & Trust) and the Methodist Church, in addition to those that still survive: the original firehouse and the village’s historic swing bridge and train depot.

For further information, phone 203-291-4800, or check westportlibrary.org.

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Submitted by Westport, CT

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