Button Hook
Object NameButton Hook
MediumWood and Metal
DimensionsHandle: 3 1/2 in. (8.9 cm)
Hook: 2 1/2 in. (6.4 cm)
ClassificationsTools, Implements and Scientific Equipment
Credit LineGift of Marian Daniells. In the Farm House Museum Collection, Farm House Museum, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.
Object number74.16.133
Status
On viewLabel TextThe button hook is a small hand tool that people widely used in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to fasten buttons on clothing, especially shoes, gloves, and dresses. Its invention and spread coincided with fashion trends that favored tightly fitted garments and boots with many small buttons that were difficult to manage by hand. A typical button hook features a slender handle—often made of wood, bone, or metal—with a small hook at the end that pulls a button through a buttonhole quickly and easily. Both men and women commonly used button hooks, and manufacturers sometimes included ornate sets in personal grooming or sewing kits. As zippers and other fasteners rose in popularity in the 1920s, people gradually stopped using button hooks in everyday life, but the tool remains an iconic example of a practical solution designed to meet the fashion and functional needs of its time.
https://blog.americanduchess.com/2022/10/the-fascinating-lives-of-buttonhooks.html
Locations
- (not entered) Iowa State University, Farm House Museum, Bedroom
Object Name: Scale, 24 lbs.
Landers, Frary & Clark
1906-1910
Object number: 74.32.147
