The Button Legacy

Feast buttons are highly collectible items among living history participants. What is a Feast button? A commemorative button that is also used to identify those who are actually participating in the Feast itself. 

This year, Leslie is on the Feast button. Normally they use drawings, but they made an exception and used a photo of her. (Only the second time ever that a photo and not a drawing has been used.)

My mother was one of the founders of The Feast of the Hunters' Moon and drew many of the Feast buttons over the years.  She was untrained as an artist, but you would never know that. Here are some that she drew - take a look.

1974 - tipis, a campfire, the hunters' moon, and the Blockhouse. The moon was a favorite motif of my mother's.

1976 - I am not sure what this is. It looks like a pipe but it also looks like a musical instrument.

1977 - a canoe on the Wabash, the hunters' moon, and a tree in late autumn.

1978 - a kettle over the fire (probably full of onion soup, a favorite at the Feast!)

1984 - a woman with her basket for gathering or shopping. My mom had a basket just like that and I think she modeled this one from it. I now have that basket and use it when I am in period clothing.

1985 - honoring the Indigenous peoples who lived in this area.

1986 - honoring the voyageurs who plied their canoes and wares up and down the Wabash.

1987 - honoring the Scots and their contributions to Fort Ouiatenon.

1992 - my favorite button of all. The hunters' moon behind the Blockhouse. Simple, even elegant, and very, very evocative of the Feast. If you have ever attended, you will understand what I mean.

1995 - the fur trappers, traders, and woodsmen.

I've often wondered what she could have done in the art world had she followed that path and gotten some training. I have a whole folder of her artwork and random drawings that she did, and I have even framed some of them. She illustrated several cookbooks and brochures and I've been able to collect some of those, too.

My mom with Teacher Daughter Lisa and Mountain Mama Jessica at an event in the 1990s.

What she enjoyed more, though, was writing. She had a degree in English and journalism, and published a slew of books on local history, and not just the 18th century segment of it. 

See the Feast buttons above the doll on the left? And her first book is pictured to the right of the doll's tricorn.

In fact, a couple of years before she died, she got a contract to write seven more books. At the time she said to me, "I sure hope I live long enough to fulfill this contract!" 

She didn't, but she still left quite a legacy of written work. I enjoy those books, but if I really want to feel close to my mom, I look through her illustrations. 

Especially those Feast buttons.