Button

Button

In modern clothing and fashion design, a button is a small fastener, most commonly made of plastic, but also frequently of seashell, which secures two pieces of fabric together. In archaeology, a button can be a significant artifact. In the applied arts and in craft, a button can be an example of...

 collecting

Collecting

The hobby of collecting includes seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining whatever items are of interest to the individual collector. Some collectors are generalists, accumulating merchandise, or stamps from all countries of the world...

may refer to the collecting of various types of buttons. This article refers to the collecting of clothing

Clothing

Clothing refers to any covering for the human body that is worn. The wearing of clothing is exclusively a human characteristic and is a feature of nearly all human societies...

 buttons.

Button collecting varies widely. In its most informal manifestation, a button collection may simply be the household

Household

The household is "the basic residential unit in which economic production, consumption, inheritance, child rearing, and shelter are organized and carried out"; [the household] "may or may not be synonymous with family"....

 button container, where buttons are stored for future use on clothing or for crafts. At the other end of the spectrum

Spectrum

A spectrum is a condition that is not limited to a specific set of values but can vary infinitely within a continuum. The word saw its first scientific use within the field of optics to describe the rainbow of colors in visible light when separated using a prism; it has since been applied by...

 is the competitive collector, mainly found in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. In between these two extremes exist casual button collectors, who accumulate buttons for sheer enjoyment and relaxation, as well as for their functional value.

Buttons in museums and galleries

Some museums and art galleries hold culturally, historically, politically, and/or artistically significant buttons in their collections. The Victoria & Albert Museum

Victoria and Albert Museum

The Victoria and Albert Museum , set in the Brompton district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 4.5 million objects...

 has many buttons, particularly in its jewellery collection, as does the Smithsonian Institution.

Hammond Turner & Sons, a button-making company in Birmingham

Birmingham

Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

, hosts an online museum with an image gallery and historical button-related articles, including an 1852 article on button-making by Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens

Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...

. In the USA, large button collections open to the public include The Waterbury Button Museum of Waterbury, Connecticut

Waterbury, Connecticut

Waterbury is a city in New Haven County, Connecticut, on the Naugatuck River, 33 miles southwest of Hartford and 77 miles northeast of New York City...

, the Keep Homestead Museum of Monson, Massachusetts

Monson, Massachusetts

Monson is a town in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 8,560 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area.The village of Monson Center lies at the center of the town....

 (which also hosts an extensive online button archive) and The Warthur Museum in Dover, Ohio

Dover, Ohio

Dover is a city in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, United States. The population was 12,210 at the 2000 census.-History and features:Dover was originally part of a grant to Col. James Morrison of Kentucky, who had received it from the federal government for Revolutionary War services...

.

Button collecting societies

Button collecting clubs and societies can add a social aspect to button collecting and provide a forum where novices can meet and learn from experienced collectors. The relatively small number of collectors - especially outside urban areas - means that a club may be difficult to set up and sustain. Access to the internet

Internet

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...

 can at least partially solve this problem, as the association of collectors online is not limited by geographical distance.

North American Button Groups

• American Buttonists Society

Organized in 1901 by a small group of men who enjoyed digging up artifacts including buttons, bullets, buckles, etc, at campsite

Campsite

A campsite or camping pitch is a place used for overnight stay in the outdoors. In British English a campsite is an area, usually divided into a number of pitches, where people can camp overnight using tents or camper vans or caravans; this British English use of the word is synonymous with the...

s. The New York Historical Society directed the diggings, and also claimed the majority and best examples of their findings. A very small number of the artifacts found by the Buttonists are held in the Luis F. Emilio collection at the Essex Institute

Essex Institute

The Essex Institute in Salem, Massachusetts, was "a literary, historical and scientific society." It maintained a museum, library, historic houses; arranged educational programs; and issued numerous scholarly publications...

 in Salem, Massachusetts

Salem, Massachusetts

Salem is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 40,407 at the 2000 census. It and Lawrence are the county seats of Essex County...

.

• National Button Society (USA)

The world's largest and longest-running formal button collecting society is the USA's National Button Society, established in 1938. According to its website, the NBS has more than 3,000 members on four continents, with local clubs in 39 of the 50 US states. The NBS's objectives are:

the promotion of educational research and exhibitions, the publishing and dissemination of information about buttons, and the preservation of the aesthetic and historical significance of buttons for future generations.

The Society and its associated state clubs regularly hold button conventions and shows which are similar in concept to agricultural show

Agricultural show

An agricultural show is a public event showcasing the equipment, animals, sports and recreation associated with agriculture and animal husbandry. The largest comprise a livestock show , a trade fair, competitions, and entertainment...

s, in which collectors submit trays of particular button types which must be arranged and mounted according to certain rules. Trays are given awards according to the judgement of a panel.

The NBS has its own system of button measurement (differing from the European ligne

Ligne

The ligne is a unit of length that was in use prior to the French adoption of the metric system in the late 18th century, and is still used by French and Swiss wristwatch makers to measure the size of a watch movement.- Watchmakers' use :There are 12 lignes to one French inch...

 system) and an extremely comprehensive and detailed system of nomenclature

Nomenclature

Nomenclature is a term that applies to either a list of names or terms, or to the system of principles, procedures and terms related to naming - which is the assigning of a word or phrase to a particular object or property...

 and categorization

Categorization

Categorization is the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated and understood. Categorization implies that objects are grouped into categories, usually for some specific purpose. Ideally, a category illuminates a relationship between the subjects and objects of knowledge...

 according to materials, designs and styles of construction.

US state and regional NBS-affiliated button societies:

The NBS-affiliated online button club, Buttonbytes, has an international membership of over one thousand, and a website including a dictionary of button collecting terms.

• Canadian groups
  • The Trillium Button Club of Southwestern Ontario is the oldest Canadian Button Club, established in 1958.
  • The Pioneer Button Club, an Ontario
    Ontario
    Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
    
    -based button collecting group, formed in 1960.
  • Ottawa Valley Button Club

• Northeast Regional Button Association (NERBA)

The Northeast Regional Button Association, consisting of the New England

New England

New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...

 States, New York and Canada, was established in 1985.

Button societies in the European Union

• The UK: The British Button Society, established in 1976, has branches in Birmingham
  Birmingham
  Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
  
  , Bristol
  Bristol
  Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
  
  , London
  London
  London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
  
  , Derbyshire
  Derbyshire
  Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...
  
  /Manchester
  Manchester
  Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
  
   (North-West Group), Solent
  Solent
  The Solent is a strait separating the Isle of Wight from the mainland of England.The Solent is a major shipping route for passengers, freight and military vessels. It is an important recreational area for water sports, particularly yachting, hosting the Cowes Week sailing event annually...
  
   and Scotland
  Scotland
  Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
  
  .
• Holland: Knopenverzamelaars
• France: FIBULE
• Switzerland: Knopfclub