National Button Day Date in the current year: November 16, 2024

Buttons are fasteners that join two pieces of fabric by sliding through a buttonhole or slipping through a loop. The earliest discovered buttons and button-like objects date to about 2800–2600 B.C., but these early buttons were used for ornamental purposes rather than as fasteners. There is archaeological evidence that buttons were used as fasteners as early as the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, and Ancient Egypt.

Since buttons are ubiquitous and have been around for approximately 5,000 years, they can be made from an impressive variety of materials, both natural and synthetic. In fact, the history of buttons and their material composition parallels the history of materials science and engineering. The raw materials used in button making include bone, ivory, vegetable ivory, leather, pearl, shells, rubber, paper (papier-mâché), wood, stone, metals, glass, enamel, ceramics, natural and synthetic fabrics and textiles, plastics, and others.

There are different types of buttons depending on the way they are attached: flat (sew-through) buttons, shank buttons, stud (push-through) buttons, snap fasteners (pressure buttons), toggles, and magnetic buttons.

Throughout history, button designs have often reflected trends in applied aesthetics and the visual arts, with buttonmakers employing a variety of techniques from painting, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, jewelry making, weaving, embroidery, metalworking, and more. Even today, in the age of mass production, buttons can be individually crafted by artists, craftspeople and artisans as works of art.

The collections of some art galleries and museums include buttons that have artistic, cultural, historical, and/or political significance. These include the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, the Cooper-Hewitt National Museum of Design in New York, and many others. In addition, thousands of people around the world collect buttons as a hobby. Some collectors simply store buttons in a container for future use, some focus on specific types of buttons, and some even participate in button collecting contests.

National Button Day was created by the National Button Society (NBS). Founded in 1938, the NBS focuses on promoting button collecting and research. It has developed a button classification system and holds regular button collecting contests and other events. Today, the society has more than 2,300 members from 36 states and 10 countries, and is represented by more than 150 local button clubs in the United States and Europe.

There are many great ways to celebrate National Button Day. You can learn more about the history of buttons, see if there are any interesting buttons at your local museum, visit a garage sale or thrift store to find some interesting buttons, make a craft project using buttons, or start a button collections. And don’t forget to post about the holiday on social media using the hashtag #NationalButtonDay to spread the word.