Fur Muff

Ariel Reker

Catalog Number: 1985.072.02

Small businesses and entrepreneurial spirits built La Crosse. While the fur industry died out in the 1980’s due to anti-fur movements led by PETA and other animal rights groups, it was one of the founding industries of the upper Midwest and La Crosse. Hunting and trapping in the La Crosse area was very profitable. Oral histories from the Special Collections at UWL’s Murphy Library report of $100 days in the early 20th century. Accounting for inflation that equals about $2400 in today’s money!

The store that produced and sold this fur muff has a long history in La Crosse. It began in 1859 as the Paul Lutz Fur Store on Front Street. Paul Lutz, Sr. founded the store there, but when it burnt to the ground in 1861 he moved it to 203 Main. It remained there until the store closed its doors for good in the 1951. The store went through three generations of Lutz’s, until the business was sold to Mellon & Edwards in 1944. Mellon & Edwards owned about 17 fur businesses throughout Wisconsin at that time.

James Orwell bought this mink muff for his wife, Anna, in the late 1910s - early 1920s. A muff of this size would have needed around 15 mink pelts. Its bracelet is imitation tortoiseshell done in an early plastic called celluloid. Even with the celluloid bracelet, this muff was a symbol of wealth and status.

This is one of the local history objects that will be featured in the exhibition “[art]ifact, Where History Meets Art,” on display from Feb. 26 through April 17 at The Pump House Regional Art Center. It will be displayed alongside a new piece created by artist Brad Nichols as a response to the history of the Lutz Fur Store. “[art]ifact” is a collaboration of the Pump House, the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Public History Program and the La Crosse County Historical Society.

This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune on January 30, 2016.

This object can be viewed in our online collections database by clicking here.

Pamperin “Black Rose” Cigar Box

Mercedes Fowler

Catalog Number: 2015.fic.543

Before cigarettes and chewing tobacco became popular, cigar smoking was a fashionable men’s custom that was enjoyed in many settings: during recreation, business, and as an after-dinner activity. The Black Rose Pamperin cigar box is a classic memento of La Crosse from the turn of the twentieth century. Distinctly marketed towards men, the half-nude, Greek Goddess- inspired woman on the box was an important part of the attraction of the Black Rose cigars.  These cigars were even featured on the Pamperin float in the 1898 Fourth of July parade. 

The Pamperin Cigar Company, like its predecessor, Pamperin and Wiggenhorn, was one of the largest producers of cigars in La Crosse and employed more than 300 hands at its peak. Marjorie Collins purchased the company from Franklin J. Pamperin, grandson of the founder, in 1974. She recalls him telling her that at one time the company employed 19 salesmen, who were called “drummers.” The drummers would board trains, and fanned out all over the Midwest and the Dakotas, selling Pamperin tobacco products. Pamperin bought and processed tobacco from regional tobacco farms, especially from the Viroqua area, which had a reputation for high quality tobacco. 

Eventually, the company sold only chewing tobacco, as the popularity of cigars began to diminish. By the time Collins owned the business, many of their customers were older men who, in their youth, had gotten leaf trimmings from the factory, called schnitzel, (or “bits”) for free, which they would then chew. Pamperin continued to fill orders for these products until the company closed in 1987.

This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune on January 23, 2016.

Buttons!

Megan Kautz

They are an object that we use almost daily, and yet rarely think about--unless maybe one is missing. Buttons, specifically pearl buttons, were once a thriving La Crosse industry. The Wisconsin Pearl Button Company opened its doors in 1900. During its operation the factory produced millions of buttons each year.

The company employed over 200 people, many of whom were young women. Local housewives and children also contributed to the industry, sewing the finished buttons to cards for a penny a piece.

Clams with colorful nicknames like “Pig Toe”, “Slop Bucket” and “Elephant Ear” were pulled from the nearby Mississippi River. At the factory they were cleaned, punched, polished, and prepared for sale all over the country. These buttons would have adorned everything from blouses and dress shirts, to army uniforms.

An industry that once thrived was, alas, short-lived: after only 33 years the La Crosse factory was forced to close. This was due to a combination of the depletion of the clam population and the invention of a cheaper material, plastic.

This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune on January 16, 2016.