Last updated: May 23, 2024
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50 Nifty Finds #50: Buttoning It Up
Good design stands the test of time, which may be why the National Park Service (NPS) standard uniform button has had the same face design since 1912. It’s commonly believed that the Waterbury Button Company has made the NPS button since the beginning, but the buttons may tell a more complicated story.
A Lasting Design
On December 13, 1911, Sigmund Eisner of the Sigmund Eisner Company responded to a request from the Department of the Interior (DOI) for ranger uniforms. In addition to quoting costs to provide them, he stated,
As far as buttons are concerned, coat and vest could be equipped with bronze Army buttons with eagle design. Or I could have buttons made to any design for the service for which they are intended. I would keep these buttons in stock subject to your orders.
The next month the assistant secretary wrote to him,
As was suggested by you in your recent interview at the Department, together with advice as to whether bronze buttons bearing an eagle design surrounded by the words “National Park Service, Department of the Interior” as used on the park ranger service badge shown you, will be procured and placed upon the uniforms.
Although Waterbury, Connecticut, was a major source of buttons, with several factories in the area in the early 1900s, New Jersey also had button manufacturers at the time. One could argue that the American Button Company, located in Newark, New Jersey, should at least be considered as a possibility for the early buttons marked for Sigmund Eisner. The company, which made metal uniform buttons among other items, was only about 36 miles from the Eisner factory in Red Bank. It was more than 100 miles closer than the Waterbury button factories, which was not an insignificant distance in the 1910s.
More research is needed into the records of the American Button Company and other New Jersey and New York button companies, as well as other button factories in Waterbury, Connecticut, for early connections to the NPS through Sigmund Eisner or otherwise.
Eisner confirmed on January 10, 1912, that he would “have [a] die made for these buttons in all sizes.” The DOI loaned him a ranger badge to create the button’s face design. On April 30, 1912, he returned the badge together with samples of the first NPS buttons.
It’s important to recognize that between 1911 and 1919, NPS uniforms were authorized but not required. The uniformed ranger force was small, relatively few uniforms were sold, and only one or two examples of pre-1920 uniforms are known. The available historic record—examples of surviving buttons, photographs, and documents—provides limited resources from which to interpret the early history. Much remains unknown.
It’s clear, however, that although the Sigmund Eisner Company provided the buttons, the uniform supplier didn’t make them. The identity of the early button subcontractor, however, is less certain. In his NPS uniform book Badges and Insignia 1894-1991, R. Bryce Workman wrote that the NPS buttons “were stocked and sold to the department by Eisner. The early buttons were made by the Waterbury Button Company of Waterbury, Connecticut, but were back-stamped SIGMUND EISNER/RED BANK, N.J.”
In fact, there are two different known Eisner Company back marks but, more significantly, Sigmund Eisner never named his button manufacturer in correspondence with NPS officials.
Sourcing the Early Buttons
Given that Sigmund Eisner never named his button supplier, it bears further discussion. It appears that Workman simply assumed that the Waterbury Button Company was the manufacturer. In his book he cites personal communication in 1991 with David Ebersole, curator of the Waterbury Button Company, as his source of information. However, his notes from that call (now part of the uniform research files in the NPS History Collection) don’t confirm that.
Although Waterbury, Connecticut, was a major source of buttons, with several factories in the area in the early 1900s, New Jersey also had button manufacturers at the time. One could argue that the American Button Company, located in Newark, New Jersey, should at least be considered as a possibility for the early buttons marked for Sigmund Eisner. The company, which made metal uniform buttons among other items, was only about 36 miles from the Eisner factory in Red Bank. It was more than 100 miles closer than the Waterbury button factories, which was not an insignificant distance in the 1910s.
More research is needed into the records of the American Button Company and other New Jersey and New York button companies, as well as other button factories in Waterbury, Connecticut, for early connections to the NPS through Sigmund Eisner or otherwise.
Dating NPS Buttons
Because the face design has remained the same since 1912, precisely dating specific NPS buttons is difficult. The way in which the metal shank is attached to the back of the button can help determine broad date ranges. External solder was used primarily until the mid-1920s (in some cases to the 1940s); an internal soldered technique was used from the mid-1920s until about 1973. Button backs were usually made and shanked during slower periods when workers were idle. They were stockpiled until needed, further adding to the approximate nature of those date ranges.
Although some information may be gleaned from the uniforms the buttons are attached to, this is an imperfect method because buttons were replaced as needed. This has led to buttons from different time periods and with different back marks on the same coat. For most of NPS history, uniform coats could be worn even after new standards came out if they were in good condition, further confusing the timeline. Although we often know who the coat belonged to, many people had long NPS careers, and discerning how long a uniform coat was worn can be difficult. In addition, NPS uniform caches (where employees leave excess uniforms at a park for other employees to use) also complicate dating solely based on who owned the items.
Thirteen different back marks have been found on NPS buttons. Some represent button manufacturers and others uniform companies (including two previously unknown uniform suppliers). A review of more than 125 uniform coats in the NPS History Collection and the Yellowstone and Yosemite museum collections was conducted in spring 2024 to try to better date back marks. Where all the buttons on a uniform coat have the same back mark, they are assumed to be original for our purposes.
Sigmund Eisner Company
The Sigmund Eisner Company began in 1859. By 1885 it was on its way to becoming the largest supplier of military uniforms to the US government. In November 1911 the company signed a contract with the Boy Scouts of America, becoming the exclusive supplier of its uniforms. By July 1918 the Eisner factory was the world’s largest producer of uniforms of all kinds. It incorporated as a New Jersey company on December 20, 1922. Sigmund Eisner died in 1925. His sons H. Raymond, J. Lester, and Monroe Eisner (and some of their children) took over operation and management of the firm. The company dissolved in 1956.
The Sigmund Eisner Company wasn’t an exclusive provider of NPS uniforms. However, the DOI and, after 1916, the NPS ordered buttons from them by the gross and sent them to parks or other uniform suppliers upon request. The standard uniform coat required four large buttons to close the coat and four smaller pocket buttons (referred to as "vest buttons" in correspondence).
The NPS History Collection and Yellowstone and Yosemite museum collections include Sigmund Eisner buttons with two different back marks:
- SIGMUND EISNER RED BANK
- SIGMUND EISNER RED BANK N.J
Although records haven’t been found to confirm this, it seems reasonable that the SIGMUND EISNER RED BANK buttons date from 1912 through 1922, and that those marked SIGMUND EISNER RED BANK N.J. date from 1923 (after the company’s incorporation in New Jersey) or later. That doesn’t mean, however, that a specific back mark was only used before or after 1923 because buttons were replaced as needed. The NPS History Collection has four loose Sigmund Eisner Company buttons. Only three uniforms with those buttons were found during the review of the Yellowstone and Yosemite collections.
The earliest known example of an NPS uniform coat is in the Yellowstone collection. It was made to the 1917 authorized uniform specifications and worn by Bill Wiggins in 1919, the year befor the official uniform was issued. It has SIGMUND EISNER RED BANK on most pockets and SIGMUD EISNER RED BANK N.J. down the front of the coat. One button is a replacement in the form of a US Army eagle button. It’s likely that Wiggins lost the button and, as a former soldier in the army, used what he had on hand to replace it.
A coat owned by former NPS Director Horace Albright in the Yosemite collection was made by the Sigmund Eisner Company. It has both SIGMUND EISNER RED BANK and SIGMUND EISNER RED BANK N.J. buttons. However, Albright reported that it wasn’t his first coat from 1920 (the first wore out). It was likely made in the mid to late 1920s but certainly before he left the NPS in 1933.
Frances Pound’s custom uniform coat in the Yellowstone collection was made in 1926. She wore it through the 1929 summer season. It has three buttons. Two are SIGMUND EISNER RED BANK buttons, suggesting a stockpile of earlier Eisner buttons that continued to be used at least until 1926. The third is a SUPERIOR QUALITY button, suggesting perhaps that it was a replacement, or it was selected at random from the stockpile of available buttons.
Another uniform from the Yellowstone collection illustrates the difficulties in reconciling conflicting data. It was made by Alvord & Ferguson (which was created in 1957) and has three SIGMUND EISNER RED BANK buttons and three WATERBURY COS. CONN. buttons on the same coat. Documents in the National Archives report that buttons—presumably provided by Sigmund Eisner Company—were also sent to Fechheimer Brothers in 1924 for uniform orders.
B. Schellenberg & Sons
The NPS History Collection includes one loose button stamped B. SCHELLENBERG & SONS BROOKLYN, N.Y. It was received as part of a donation of eight buttons said to be from an NPS uniform coat worn by Arthur J. Howard in 1935 and 1936. In fact, the buttons are a mix of coat and overcoat buttons, so more than one coat is represented. It is the only known example of an NPS uniform button with this back mark. The other seven buttons have various back marks for the Waterbury Button Company. Despite this seemingly specific date, it’s likely that this and at least one other button are earlier than 1935–1936 (see Waterbury Button Company below).
B. Schellenberg & Sons began as a uniform supplier in 1857. The company made a name for itself when it supplied uniforms during the Civil War. After the war its success increased. The company expanded several times, even reopening after a devastating fire in 1912. After 70 years in the ready-to-wear business, the company decided to focus on their custom and uniform departments in 1926. From about 1921 onward the company made uniforms for yachtsman, officers and crews, and yacht club members.
In 1942 Schellenberg & Sons was one of 23 New York uniform companies found by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to have colluded to fix prices and compress competition. By 1948 the business had closed.
No information is available to determine if the company made its own buttons or, if like Sigmund Eisner, it subcontracted for their manufacturer. However, no NPS uniforms have been found by this maker, and the surviving paperwork doesn’t list the company as one that supplied uniforms, suggesting that they may have only supplied buttons.
Russell Uniform Company
Another previously unknown button back mark was recently found on three uniforms in the NPS History Collection and Yellowstone’s collection. These buttons are stamped RUSSELL UNIFORM COMPANY NEW YORK.
The Russell Uniform Company was in business by at least 1912 when it provided costumes for Broadway theater productions. By 1914 the company specialized in police and firefighter uniforms. The company was cited along with B. Schellenberg & Sons in the 1942 FTC decision regarding collusion among New York uniform makers. It was still selling police and fire uniforms and equipment in 1961.
Interestingly, the company name on the NPS buttons has apparently been deliberately obscured, suggesting an effort to remove the company name from them. The three coats with these buttons were made by Alvord & Ferguson of Merced, California, which incorporated in 1957 after purchasing the western wear line from B.B. McGinnis, also of Merced.
Given that NPS uniforms made by this company have not been found and that button backs were often made, shanked, and stockpiled until needed, it’s possible that the button backs were simply bought by another company and used with the NPS button face. However, because the company specialized in police uniforms, it’s possible that they made uniforms for US Park Police. No information is available to determine if the company made its own buttons or, if like Sigmund Eisner and Schellenberg & Sons, it subcontracted their manufacture. Dates inferred from the Alvord & Ferguson uniforms with the RUSSELL UNIFORM COMPANY NEW YORK buttons suggest that they were used from about 1956 through the 1960s. These buttons are found together on coats with those marked WATERBURY BUTTON CO. and SUPERIOR QUALITY.
Superior Quality
Many NPS uniform buttons marked SUPERIOR QUALITY are known, both in coat and cuff sizes. The back mark is sufficiently generic to frustrate research. Although it seems likely that the English manufacturers of buttons with this mark can be ruled out, little else can be said with certainty.
SUPERIOR QUALITY buttons have been found as the sole button type on firmly dated uniforms made by J. Cohen & Son (1929), Schneiders (1952), and The May Company (1958). These and other less precisely dated uniforms in NPS museum collections suggest that the SUPERIOR QUALITY buttons were used from the 1920s through the 1950s.
Some unsourced internet sites suggest that Waterbury Button Company bought the die for this back mark from the Steele and Johnson Manufacturing Company when it closed in 1935. Perhaps, but if they did it would mean that the SUPERIOR QUALITY buttons on NPS uniforms from the 1920s were made by Steele and Johnson rather than Waterbury Button Company. However, the archivist at the University of Connecticut Archives & Special Collections quickly reviewed the company’s ledgers for us and found no links between Steele and Johnson and the NPS, Sigmund Eisner, or the SUPERIOR QUALITY buttons. We believe this company remains a contender for some of the early NPS buttons, but more research is needed.
Arguably it would have been odd if the Waterbury Button Company was the exclusive maker of the NPS buttons since 1912, as Workman contends, but used its own back marks on many buttons and SUPERIOR QUALITY on others. It’s conceivable that if the company bought physical stock from Steele and Johnson, it used NPS buttons already made by the latter company and marked SUPERIOR QUALITY. This could explain why there are instances of various Waterbury back-marked buttons on coats that also have SUPERIOR QUALITY stamps. However, the wide range of dated uniforms and manufacturers with that stamp suggest either that Waterbury Button Company continued to make them, or another manufacturer used SUPERIOR QUALITY on its buttons.
Waterbury Button Company
Documenting when the Waterbury Button Company began producing NPS buttons has been frustrating. Our inquiries to the Waterbury Button Company have gone unanswered. Although the archivist at the Mattatuck Museum, which houses the Waterbury Button Museum, responded to our request, she couldn’t find information that addressed dating the Waterbury button back marks or correspondence with the Sigmund Eisner Company or the NPS. The Waterbury Button Company’s records at the museum only go through 1935. The dates provided below about the NPS uniform buttons is approximate. More research is needed into the chronology and successive ordering of the various Waterbury Button Company buttons.
The earliest Waterbury Button Company-marked button in the NPS History Collection wasn’t available during Workman’s research, as it was donated to the NPS History Collection in 2019. It’s stamped AA QUALITY / WATERBURY B CO, a mark that was created about 1922. Interestingly, on February 2, 1923, Superintendent John R. White at Sequoia and General Grant National Parks wrote that, “the buttons on the National Park Service uniforms seem to be of poor quality and the bronzing almost immediately wears off leaving them partly colored. In any efforts to better the uniform I feel that it would be of considerable assistance to have an improved quality of button.”
Could this dissatisfaction with the Eisner buttons be what led to Waterbury Button Company to supply NPS buttons? It certainly begs the question of why the company would have made buttons with Eisner back stamps at the same time that, according to Workman, the company was also supplying buttons with the Sigmund Eisner marks.
A decade later the WATERBURY BUTTON CO. back mark (and variation WATERBURY BUTTON CO) is commonly found on the NPS buttons, often with WATERBURY BUTTON CO. CONN. buttons and sometimes with SUPERIOR QUALITY buttons. They are found on coats made by Fechheimer Brothers, B.B. McGinnis, Alvord & Ferguson, Gregorys Uniform Specialists, and Bell’s Tailors (a Denver company). Its earliest documented use appears on Charles Peterson’s 1932 uniform in the NPS History Collection.
Loose buttons marked WATERBURY BUTTON CO. WATERBURY CON are present in the NPS History Collection. However, without additional information or associated uniforms, these are difficult to date.
The WATERBURY BUTTON CO. CONN mark is found on uniforms made by Fechheimer Brothers, G&G Co., Inc., Howard Uniforms, and Livingstons. These uniforms date from the late 1940s, but the buttons were likely made earlier.
In 1944 the company changed its name to Waterbury Companies Inc. to reflect the broader range of materials it produced to support efforts during World War II. Back marks on NPS buttons that appear to post-date that name change are:
- WATERBURY COS CONN
- WATERBURY COS. CONN.
- WATERBURY CO’S INC CONN
- WATERBURY CO’S INC. CONN.
Buying in Bulk
For the first few decades at least, the NPS ordered buttons by the gross and sent them to parks or uniform manufacturers as needed (rather than having uniform suppliers subcontract directly with button manufacturers. which has been the case since at least 1981). The NPS History Collection includes a few examples of unused buttons on cards, wrapped in paper, as they were received from the supplier.
One card of 22 overcoat buttons is of particular interest. The cardstock is reused from packaging for a toy zeppelin. Enough of the graphic remains to identify from surviving examples on the internet that the toy was sold by Ferdinand Strauss Inc. Following the outbreak of World War I Ferdinand Strauss determined to bring manufacturing of mechanical toys—formerly a German industry—to the United States. In 1918 he took over the former New Jersey Toy and Novelty Company in East Rutherford. By 1920 Strauss Toy Shops Inc. was the largest distributers of toys in the world, with plans to increase the size of the factory until it was the largest in the United States.
The overcoat buttons are slightly too big for this card, which probably originally held standard coat buttons. In 1928 Ferdinand Strauss Inc. set up shop in Waterbury, Connecticut. It contracted with the Waterbury Button Company to create toy tractors. A manufacturing flaw led Strauss Company into bankruptcy, and the company sued the Waterbury Button Company. It’s not clear if the button maker received the packaging to rework into button cards when it partnered with Strauss or if it bought the excess box materials following liquidation.
Of the 22 overcoat buttons on the Strauss zeppelin card, 21 are back stamped for "WATERBURY BUTTON CO. WATERBURY CON." and one is marked "SUPERIOR QUALITY," further suggesting that multiple cards of buttons were consolidated onto this card over time.
Two other cards in the NPS History Collection are probably also from reused toy packaging, but the design fragments haven’t been definitively linked to a toy or a company. These cards contain a mix of buttons stamped for SUPERIOR QUALITY and WATERBURY BUTTON CO. CONN. Later button cards made from plain cardboard are also in the collection. These cards include buttons marked SUPERIOR QUALITY, WATERBURY BUTTON CO., and WATERBURY BUTTON CO. WATERBURY CONN.
Beginning in 1981 the NPS required that uniform makers subcontract with Waterbury Button Company to get buttons for the uniforms. In the early 2000s the NPS added buttons to the uniform contract as a separate item. This enables employees to purchase them directly from the uniform company if they need replacement buttons.
Anyone with more examples of NPS uniform button back marks or information which helps refine dating the different Waterbury Button Company back marks is encouraged to contact the NPS History Collection archivist.
Special Thanks
A big “thank you” goes out to Lena Muldoon (Yellowstone National Park), Sam Goza (Yosemite National Park), and Anna Halgash (NPS History Collection) for reviewing and documenting buttons on uniform coats in their respective museum collections.Sources
--. (1905, March 23). “Shellenburg [sic] & Sons Opening.” Times Union (Brooklyn, New York), p. 6.
--. (1906, April 26). “B. Schellenberg & Sons’ Well-known Store.” The Standard Union (Brooklyn, New York), p. 2.
--. (1909, September 25). “B. Schellenberg & Sons.” The Brooklyn Daily Eagle (Brooklyn, New York), p. 29.
--. (1913, November 14). “New Clothing Store to Open Dec. 1.” Merced County Sun (Merced, California), p. 7.
--. (1926, May 27). B. Schellenberg & Sons “selling out” advertisement. The Standard Union (Brooklyn, New York), p. 4.
--. (1930, August 11). “Waterbury Button Company Waterbury, Conn.” The Hartford Courant (Hartford, Connecticut), p. 18.
--. (1931, July 25). “Toy Company Fails, $53,423 Liabilities.” The Waterbury Democrat (Waterbury, Connecticut), p. 7.
--. (1931, August 31). “Button Co. Sued for $100,000.” The Waterbury Democrat (Waterbury, Connecticut), p. 1.
--. (1931, October 12). “$100,000 Suit Nearing Settlement.” The Waterbury Democrat (Waterbury, Connecticut), p. 2.
--. (1935, January 22). “Steele & Johnson Co. Plant May Shut Down.” The Waterbury Democrat (Waterbury, Connecticut), pp. 1, 4.
--. (1935, September 26). “Button-making Built Local Brass Plants.” The Waterbury Democrat (Waterbury, Connecticut), p. 38.
--. (1948, October 22). “Plant President Dies in New York.” The Freehold Transcript and The Monmouth Inquirer (Freehold, New Jersey), p. 27.
--. (1956, May 31). “B.B. McGinnis Co. Changes Hands After 44 Years.” Merced Sun-Star (Merced, California), p. 11.
--. (1957, December 19). “Western Wear Store Division Changes Hands.” Merced Express (Merced, California), p. 4.
--. (1963, April 25). “Western Wear, Equipment Store Have Openings.” Merced Express (Merced, California), p. 2.
Assembled Historic Records of the National Park Service (HFCA 1645). NPS History Collection, Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.
Martin, Frances. (2024, April 19). Pers. Comm. between archivist at the Mattatuck Museum and Nancy Russell, NPS History Collection archivist.
National Museum of American History. (2013, May 29). “Unbuttoning the History of the Waterbury Collection.” Available online at https://americanhistory.si.edu/explore/stories/unbuttoning-history-waterbury-collection
Red Bank Library. (Undated). “The Eisner Family of Red Bank.” Available online at https://www.redbanklibrary.org/the-eisner-family.
Rubin, Debra. (2023, June 1). “The Contributions of Sigmund Eisner.” Available online at https://www.jlifenj.com/the-contributions-of-sigmund-eisner/
Smith, Laura. (2024, April 22). Pers. Comm. between Smith, archivist for the Archives & Special Collections at the University of Connecticut Library, and Nancy Russell, NPS History Collection archivist, about the Steele and Johnson Manufacturing Company records.
Steele and Johnson Manufacturing Company Records. Archives & Special Collections at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, University of Connecticut Library. Accessed May 18, 2024. Available online at https://archivessearch.lib.uconn.edu/repositories/2/resources/674
Strauss, Ferdinand. (1920, October 12). “Birth of the Mechanical Toy Industry in America.” The Record (Hackensack, New Jersey), p. 6. United States Federal Trade Commission (1942). “In the Matter of Uniform Manufacturers Exchange, Inc., Its Officers, Board of Directors, and Members, Et. al.” Federal Trade Commission Decisions, Vol. 35, pp 585-487.Waterbury Button Company website available at https://waterburybutton.com/about/
Workman, R. Bryce. (1991). National Park Service Uniforms: Badges and Insignia, 1894-1991. National Park Service, Harpers Ferry Center, Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.