Pinback button with a Mary McLeod Bethune stamp from Mae's Millinery Shop: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

A pinback button from Mae's Millinery Shop featuring a postage stamp with a portrait of Mary McLeod Bethune. The stamp is a portrait of Bethune, with her name printed in black above her head. It is placed in the front center on a white paper ground beneath clear plastic. There is a pinback closure on the metal reverse and engraved text reading "BADGE / -A- / MINIT / LaSalle / ILL 61301".

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1985-1994
• Manufactured by: Badge-A-Minit, American
• Owned by: Mae Reeves, American, 1912 - 2016
• Subject of: Mae's Millinery Shop, American, 1941 - 1994
• Subject of: Mary McLeod Bethune, American, 1875 - 1955
• Type: buttons (information artifacts)
• Medium: ink on paper, metal, plastic laminate
• Dimensions: H x W x D: 2 1/4 × 2 1/4 × 1/2 in. (5.7 × 5.7 × 1.3 cm)
• Place collected: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Black Enterprise
• Topic: Business
• Topic: Millinery
• Topic: Social reform
• Topic: Women
• Object number: 2010.6.15
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift from Mae Reeves and her children, Donna Limerick and William Mincey, Jr.
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The underlying object's rights statement is: © 1985 United States Postal Office Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.