Page 38 - March 2025

B
utton
36 The NaTioNal ButtonBulleTiN March 2025
A Blast from the Past

The f ir s t N ational Butt on Sho w --
The first National Button Show --

and a v er y y oung NBS c har t er member
and a very young NBS charter member

by Carole Adrian

ost of us know the National Button Society was created in 1938 , but it’s a
1
Msurprise to discover just how quickly the business world took notice of the
new hobby and of the NBS itself.
The industry magazine Notion & Novelty Review published what must be some of
the earliest printed mentions of the National Button Show, the hobby of button
collecting, and the NBS. In October of 1939, the Review, in its “What’s New in
Notions” section, offered this calendar item:
“People who make a hobby of collecting buttons will participate in the Chicago
Antiques Exposition and Hobby Fair to be held at the Stevens Hotel, Chicago,
from November 13-18. That part of the show devoted to these collectors is
known as the National Button Show.” The brief piece notes that related button
exhibits will be divided into four classifications, which include semi-precious,
military and insignia, buttons depicting human heads, and “Miscellaneous or
general which includes all other classifications not in the above.” 2
In the following month, under
the headline “Button Now
Collectors’ Item,” the Review
quotes a New York Times article
with the same title from October
24, 1939, in which an antiques
dealer suggests rapid collector
interest has occurred because
of “the formation of a button
collectors’ club in Chicago.” The
short entry concludes with what
must have been a shocker in
1939: “The price [of a collectible
button] may vary from 25 or
Favor buttons from the first National Button Show, 50 cents to a maximum of $25
Chicago, IL 1939 which was said to be an extreme