A History Of Buttons, Pins And Badges!

One Inch Button Badges were first produced in the USA towards the end of the Nineteenth Century as a low cost alternative to the medallions, pendants and “badges” of the day that were expensive to make.

The invention of celluloid in 1869 by John Wesley Hyatt gave the world its first semi-synthetic plastic and it was crucial in the development of a whole new range of products including button badges.

Thin sheets of celluloid could be used to cover paper and give the effect of the traditional enamel badge without the cost or labour skills needed to work with enamel. It also meant that less metal could be used in producing badges and there was no longer any need for soldering or screwing.

All that was needed was a printed image and a thin sheet of celluloid to cover it (both cut the size, usually circular and one inch in diameter, with the celluloid slightly overlapping the paper so that it would hold it in place). A pressed metal shell was produced and a simple machine used to press the paper, celluloid and shell together. A metal ring was then attached to the back of the badge to hold the badge together, again by the use of a simple press. Finally a pin was clipped into the back of the badge so that it could be fixed to an item of clothing.

1 Inch button badges were and still are called buttons or pins, particularly in the USA, but in the UK they are best known as button badges – for no other reason than they are more often than not the size of a button.

Plastic badges have been made in recent years, but the traditional metal button badge are still made in the same way and to the same high standard as they were over 100 years ago. Certainly the components used haven’t changed for decades, with the only real difference between the early button badges and the ones made today being the use of plastic acetates instead of celluloid ones and a D pin instead of an open pin.

Some of the first buttons to appear in the UK were produced to celebrate the diamond jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1897. The badges were cheap to buy and made popular souvenirs of what was a huge occasion in Britain at the time.

The New Jersey company of Whitehead & Hoag were one of the biggest manufacturers of one inch circular button badges during the first half of the twentieth century and they were responsible for the production of the Boer War badges that arrived in Britain at the turn of the twentieth century. With messages like “Only One Order – Forward!” and “England Expects Every Man To Do His Duty”, they proved very popular in a country gripped by the wave of patriotism that accompanied the war.

Today’s love of button badges among the young though dates back to the 1960s and early Seventies when they were used by students, hippies and musicians as a symbol of protest. John Lennon for one loved them and from then onwards the one inch button badge has always been seen as a cool thing to wear.

It was the arrival of the Sex Pistols and punk in 1976 though that was to make the button badge an essential fashion statement. For the next decade, people all over the world displayed their allegiance to a band, music, youth cult or cause by wearing one or more button badges. Despite lulls in their popularity since, they remain a firm favorite today and are enjoying something of a revival in fortunes of late.

Buttons have been an important part of American politics since day one. Would it surprise you to learn that George Washington wore a campaign button? It’s true. Almost every American President had campaign buttons of some sort, from Abraham Lincoln to most recently Barack Obama.

Though the button that GW wore was a brass button sewn to his coat. It wasn’t until the 1860’s that a likeness of a candidate would appear on a button. President Lincoln’s campaign had buttons made using tiny type or ferrotype photo process. During the 1890s that the first mass produced campaign buttons hit the of William McKinley. McKinley’s buttons were produced much like buttons Just Buttons produces today, a metal shell is covered with a piece of printed paper, which is then covered by a protective layer of plastic and pressed together. It was around this time that a Newark NJ based company, Whitehead and Hoag patented buttons.

Lithographed buttons grew in popularity during the 1940s, most notably in the 1940’s presidential election. Millions of political slogan buttons were produced in response to FDR and the news surrounding him at the time. Recently, campaign buttons have made a come-back. Barack Obama’s campaign had professional button makers and novices pressing buttons and disseminating them across the country.

Information taken from (http://www.buttonbadges.co.uk/button-badge-history.htm) & (http://justbuttons.org)