Chicago This Week Episode 8
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Amelia Burns Medill Reports
Shells tell the story of long-gone button industry
![Dozens of cone top shells from a closed factory in Denton, Maryland.](https://s3.amazonaws.com/medill.wordpress.offload/wp-media-folder-medill-reports-chicago/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2021/06/PXL_20210505_150118410-1024x605.jpg)
By Marisa Sloan Medill Reports EDGEWATER, Md. — The Smithsonian Environmental Research Center’s Environmental Archaeology Laboratory is easy to miss, hidden within a basement on the sprawling 2,650-acre campus. Those who manage to find it can expect to be greeted by an eclectic spread: microscopes, coffee mugs, miniature dinosaurs and shelves full of both books […]