Button pin calling for humanitarian support
Extent and Medium
overall: | Diameter: 0.875 inches (2.223 cm)
Creator(s)
- Whitehead & Hoag Co. (Manufacturer)
Archival History
The pin was acquired by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1992.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection
Scope and Content
Pin-back button, manufactured by the Whitehead & Hoag Company (W&H) in Newark, New Jersey. The central image is based on a 1915 bronze sculpture by Jules Louis (Leon) Butensky titled “Goles” (Yiddish for diaspora) and known as “Exile” in English. Button pins were used to rally support for a variety of causes, and similar buttons were commissioned by the Central Committee for the Relief of Jews Suffering Through the War and for a Relief Ball in March 1916. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, increased antisemitism, rapid modernization, and deepening economic problems led a large proportion of the Jewish population to emigrate from Eastern Europe. By the time World War I broke out in 1914, Jewish emigres exceeded 3.5 million. Many Jews living in the Austro-Hungarian and Russian Empires in Eastern Europe were displaced due to military campaigns, and fled to other countries to escape persecution. After the war, the United States became increasingly isolationist, with the Quota Act of 1921 and Immigration Act of 1924 severely restricted the number of refugees that could enter the country. In the decade leading up to World War II, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party’s increasing persecution and suppression of Jewish rights led more Jews to flee Germany. However, the strict quotas and the growing anti-immigrant sentiment limited the number of Jewish refugees able to immigrate to the United States. Jewish leaders employed a variety of overt and behind-the-scenes tactics to encourage the American government to take action, but the majority of citizens continued to oppose allowing refugees into the country.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Reproduction
No restrictions on use
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Circular, paper covered, metal pin-back button. In the center, printed in medium blue ink, is a man holding a child and carrying a sack. The figures are set inside a cream-colored ellipse, within a circular, dark blue border, and a solid blue filling the rest of the circular space. A red, white, and blue American flag is split between the left and right sides of the frame. The top of the frame has a line of Hebrew text printed in dark blue ink on a silver-colored, metallic background, and a row of beading in silver over a dark blue background. The bottom of the frame has a similar row of beading above a line of English text, printed in dark blue over the silver background. The recessed metal backing has an inset straight pin, and an off-white paper backing with the manufacturer information and a union seal printed in black.
Subjects
- World War, 1914-1918--America.
- Jews--United States--Charities--Influence.
- Newark (N.J.)
- United States--Emigration and immigration.
- World War, 1914-1918--Jews--Europe.
- United States.
Genre
- Buttons (Information artifacts)
- Identifying Artifacts
- Object