Button collecting

An early collection of military buttons was assiduously gathered by Luis Fenollosa Emilio in the United States.

During the Belle Époque in Western Europe, there was an interest in collecting small antiques, which included buttons.

[2]: xiii  In the late 1800s, young women in England would accumulate glass buttons on a string, and it is said that when there were 1,000, she was ready for a suitor.

The first known serious button collector in the US was Gertrude Patterson, who spoke about her collection on Dave Elman's Hobby Lobby radio interview show in 1938.

[1]: 14 [6]  Collectors began to gather at shows for educational programs and to have access to the many buttons for sale.

Books began to be published on the topic, and a magazine was started in 1944 and continued to 1979, Just Buttons, edited by Sally Luscomb.

These periodicals provided an opportunity for an expanding number of collectors to share their research in a manageable way.

[10]: 23 Some museums and art galleries hold culturally, historically, politically, and/or artistically significant buttons in their collections.

London'ts Victoria & Albert Museum has many buttons, particularly in its jewellery collection, as does the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC.

[11][12][13] The Cooper-Hewitt National Museum of Design in New York, a division of the Smithsonian, has many buttons from the Renaissance forward.

Those who are interested in exhibiting their buttons competitively in regional or national shows in the United States follow the classification system contained in the National Button Society's Blue Book: Official Classification Competition Guidelines.

This organization provides online meetings and resources for "button collectors, scholars, enthusiasts and the curious."