Pin Backs

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Most have a common appearance and style, a Cartouche at the top made of thin stamped brass, with an opening to install a printed paper name tag, and two safety type pins on back, one to attach to your clothing and the other to hold a ribbon. The most common ribbon is two colors, black with silver or white lettering on one side and red, blue or white on the another side with bold coloring that will show off the lettering.

Often the badge will contain a third element with the organization’s emblem, name or logo. Additional attachments sometimes show up for the wearer’s position (Chairman, Adviser, Treasurer, Greater Than Thou) or years of attendance. Naturally, I search for the oldest badges, and condition is also considered. Convention badges are usually dated and name the city holding the activity, adding instantly to the knowledge the badge presents.

Several that have passed through my hands have just the initials of the organization or fraternal group. Some are easy to recognize, BPOE (Elks), three intertwined rings (Odd Fellows), etc. With the help of my friends Google and Ask, I have been successful in determining the origins of all the badges I’ve had. Once, while in the process of buying a badge at an antique store in Illinois, the clerk offered to call the dealer that owned it and she was able to provide me with the woman’s organization the emblem on the ribbon represented. It was a fraternal insurance group from Chicago circa 1880s. Another woman’s branch of a male fraternal group had woman’s hands clasped in a handshake. An Odd Fellows badge features two hands in a fist bump.

But the face of the badge tells only part of the story. The backs on many have the maker’s mark or name. After quite some time collecting these badges, one starts to guess who the maker might be, before turning them over. When no signature is present, design and quality point to one or another of the various companies producing them over the last century. On the top of my favorites list is Whitehead & Hoag in New Jersey from 1892 to 1921. Bastian Bros. of Rochester, New York, did similar work. In the St. Paul – Minneapolis area National Novelty and Brown & Bigelow are seen on some articles. From Milwaukee, Schwaab, a company with 150 years of history, also shows up on badges, and yet another is signed F. W. Fairbairn, Cleveland, O. These names, the styling and the type of holding pin on back, all add up to help determine a ribbon’s age when no date is given directly on the piece.

If your collections include this type of badge, share with all of us through a reply or add your collection to C. Q. for all to see.