Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Guide to the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: Buttons

Summary

Collection ID:
NMAH.AC.0060.S01.01.Buttons
Creators:
Warshaw, Isadore, 1900-1969
Dates:
1830-1917
Languages:
English
.
Physical Description:
1.19 Cubic feet
consisting of 2.5 boxes, 2 folders, 1 oversize folder.
Repository:
A New York bookseller, Warshaw assembled this collection over nearly fifty years. The Warshaw Collection of Business Americana: Buttons forms part of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Subseries 1.1: Subject Categories. The Subject Categories subseries is divided into 470 subject categories based on those created by Mr. Warshaw. These subject categories include topical subjects, types or forms of material, people, organizations, historical events, and other categories. An overview to the entire Warshaw collection is available here: Warshaw Collection of Business Americana

Scope and Contents

Scope and Contents
This material consists primarily of scattered correspondence on letterhead stationery, bills/receipts, import/export documents, shipping invoices trademarks and patents from importers, manufacturers and dealers of buttons. The buttons are made of pearl, metal, bone, cloth and horn for military, naval, railway, police, and livery use. The companies also sold other items including combs, earrings, pins, clasps, thimbles, hooks and eyes, brooches, badges, whips, shells, tacks, nails, medallions, banners, and advertising novelties. Some of the companies manufactured machinery for making buttons and combs. There are not many images, however, there is an engraving of an early button maker in the "miscellaneous" folder. There are also import/export documents, sample cards, buttons, and a small group of metal button badges. The material dates from 1830-1917, but the bulk is late nineteenth century.

Arrangement

Arrangement
Arranged in two subseries. Subseries one is organized by name of company. Sunseroes 2 is organized by type.
  • Subseries 1: Companies
  • Subseries 2: Related Materials

Administration

Author
Vanessa Broussard-Simmons and Nicole Blechynden
Sponsor
Funding for partial processing of the collection was supported by a grant from the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund (CCPF).
Processing Information
Oversize material is unprocessed.
Immediate Source of Acquisition note
Buttons is a portion of the Business Ephemera Series of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Accession AC0060 purchased from Isadore Warshaw in 1967. Warshaw continued to accumulate similar material until his death, which was donated in 1971 by his widow, Augusta. For a period after acquisition, related materials from other sources (of mixed provenance) were added to the collection so there may be content produced or published after Warshaw's death in 1969. This practice has since ceased.
Processing Information
In 2016, with funding provided by the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund, the Archives Center at the National Museum of American History implemented the use of minimal level processing standards to increase information about and facilitate access to more of our collections. A large portion of stored material from the original acquisition received minimal level processing, which resulted in additions to this Subject category. This effort included basic arrangement and replacement of non-archival housing for long-term stability, but staples and other fasteners have not all been removed. Revisions to the encoded finding aid were made to reflect the added content in context to the previously processed material.
Minimal level processing and enhancement of the machine-readable finding aid completed by Nicole Blechynden, September 2017.

Using the Collection

Preferred Citation note
Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: Buttons, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
Conditions Governing Access note
Collection is open for research. Some items may be restricted due to fragile condition.
Conditions Governing Use note
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.

Materials in the Archives Center

Materials in the Archives Center
Archives Center Collection of Business Americana (AC0404)

Forms Part Of


Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Business ephemera Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Ephemera Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Buttons Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Combs Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

Archives Center, National Museum of American History
P.O. Box 37012
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Washington, D.C. 20013-7012
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