Vigo County Historical Society

Campaign buttons became popular in U.S. in 1896

A button is a disk or other object used to hold a garment closed, attached to one side of the garment and passed through a buttonhole or loop on the other side. Buttons also are used as decorations on clothing.

Another type of button is called a pin back or lapel button. These buttons, usually made of metal, consist of a message or picture on the front and a pin on the back. These buttons are pinned to clothing to show support for a candidate or a cause, advertise a product, commemorate an event, or communicate a message or slogan.

Clothing buttons are made of bone, cloth, glass, metal, plastic, shells and stones. Nobody knows when people first started using buttons on clothing. Archeologists have found bone buttons dating to prehistoric times. Early Europeans used buttons as decorations and fastened their loose fitting garments with string or pins.

In the early 1200s, the buttonhole was invented, and people started using bronze or wooden buttons to fasten their clothes making their garments more form fitting. The rich had costly beautiful buttons of gold and silver set with gems.

During the 1700s, portrait and picture buttons became popular in France. After the Revolution, buttons contained pictures of war heroes and the French flag.

Pin-back buttons became popular in the United States in 1896, during the presidential race between William McKinley and William Jennings Bryan.

Legend has it that in the 1500s, buttons were added to men’s coat cuffs to keep them from wiping their mouths on their sleeves. The custom of placing men’s buttons on the right and women’s on the left, came about because most people were right-handed. It made it easier for men to get dressed and for maids to dress wealthy women. Also it enabled men to unbutton their coat with their left hand while drawing their sword with their right.

Button collecting is a popular hobby. Some collect clothing buttons. Others collect pin-backs. Hobbyists buy, sell, trade with other collectors and dealers and belong to organizations of button collectors.

The buttons in the picture are part of the collection at the Vigo County Historical Museum.