BUTTON encyclopedia topics

button, knoblike appendage used on wearing apparel either for ornament or for fastening. Although buttons were sometimes used as fasteners by Greeks and Romans, they were more often merely ornamental disks. They first became widely used when fitted garments came into use in the 13th cent., and their popularity has varied with the changes in fashion. In the 16th cent. they were magnificent and were classed among the vanities; made of silver or gold and jeweled, they were often set in a long row touching one another. In the 17th cent. cloth-covered buttons with embroidered decoration were popular; buttons appeared on everything, even handkerchiefs. The Puritans, considering buttons a vanity, used hooks and eyes. Early settlers in North America often used buttons in trading with the indigenous peoples. The manufacture of buttons began in the United States c.1826. Buttons, originally made of bronze or bone, have also been made of materials such as metal, porcelain, paste, wood, ivory, horn, pearl, glass, and plastic. There are two main types, those made with holes and those with shanks. The latter have a loop of metal let in through a hole or soldered into place.

See D. Epstein and M. Safro, Buttons (1991); D. J. Wisniewski, Antique & Collectible Buttons (1997).

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Licensed from Columbia University Press

bachelor's button

bachelor's button, popular name for several plants usually characterized by rounded clusters of flowers, such as the cornflower and globe amaranth.

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Licensed from Columbia University Press

VIntage Buttons
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Gwinnett, Button

Gwinnett, Button, c.1735-1777, American political figure, signer of the Declaration of Independence, b. Gloucestershire, England. Emigrating to America, he became a Georgia planter and merchant. In 1776-77, he was a Georgia delegate to the Continental Congress. He was briefly president (governor) of Georgia in 1777, but was killed by Lachlan McIntosh in a duel.

See biography by C. F. Jenkins (1926).

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Licensed from Columbia University Press

black widow

Any of several black spiders in the genus Latrodectus with a venomous bite that is rarely fatal to humans. Black widow species are found worldwide, with three living in North America. In Australia it is called the redback. The females are shiny black, usually with a reddish hourglass-shaped design on the underside of the spherical abdomen and with a body about 1 in. (2.5 cm) long. The black widow preys on insects. The male, about one-fourth the female's size, is often killed and eaten by the female after mating (the source of its name).

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.

button

Small disk or knob used as a fastener or ornament. It usually has holes or a shank through which it is sewn to one side of a garment. It is used to fasten or close the garment when it is passed through a loop or hole in the other side. The ancient Greeks fastened their tunics with buttons and loops. In medieval Europe, garments were laced or fastened together with brooches or clasps until the buttonhole was reinvented in the 13th century. Throughout history, buttons have been made in a range of sizes and materials, some elaborated into miniature works of art.

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Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.