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Ornate Metal Slide Buckle

National Museum of American History
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Object Details

Waterbury Button Company
Description
This heart shaped metal buckle frame is stamped to look like it has multifaceted gemstones.
The Waterbury Collection tells the story of an important American manufacturer. As evidence of one company’s diverse output, the collection consists of several thousand metal objects and assemblies made in Waterbury, Connecticut, in the Naugatuck Valley from about 1890 to 1930. During the 19th Century, the Naugatuck Valley became a center of brass manufacturing, drawing heavily on the armory manufacturing practice of interchangeable parts.
The Waterbury Button Company traces its beginning to the War of 1812, when Aaron Benedict began crafting uniform buttons. During the nineteenth century the company grew from a small village shop to a large national manufacturer. Its product line expanded to include machine produced brassware such as knobs, hinges, and buckles. The company also experimented with innovative materials such as celluloid in the 1870s and Bakelite in the 1920s. In the spirit of its founding, the company continued to supply uniform buttons and mobilized to meet wartime demands during major conflicts including the Civil War and World War I.
This rich history of product innovation and machine assembly is captured in the more than 7,500 examples of military insignia, civilian emblems, belt plates, buckles, and machine components donated to the museum in 1975. Varying in size from a thumbtack to a soup can, the majority of these objects are composed of metal such as tin, nickel, brass, and other copper and iron alloys. They originally came to the museum mounted on cardboard display boards. At the National Museum of American History, the collection is divided between the Division of Work and Industry and the Division of Armed Forces History. Additional artifacts can be found at the Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury, Connecticut.
Location
Currently not on view
Credit Line
Waterbury Companies, Inc.
1890 - 1930
ID Number
MC.314686.0806
catalog number
314686.0806
accession number
314686
Object Name
buckle, slide
Physical Description
metal (overall material)
Measurements
overall: 1 5/8 in x 1 3/4 in x 1/4 in; 4.1275 cm x 4.445 cm x .635 cm
place made
United States: Connecticut, Waterbury
See more items in
Work and Industry: Manufacturing
Industry & Manufacturing
Waterbury Button Company Collection
National Museum of American History
Record ID
nmah_1438043
Metadata Usage (text)
CC0
GUID (Link to Original Record)
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746ad-c5a8-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa

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