Button, 1840s-50s. Two hands resting on a book set into a two-piece gold-washed brass frame with a loop on the reverse for sewing to a garment. The button was discovered in the early 1980s in a flea market in Massachusetts. The use of buttons for political purposes in the United States began in the 1700s. For many years, the image was believed to represent an anti-slavery motif of two hands - one black, one white - resting on a Bible. Today, after detailed digital imaging, the photograph seems to show the hands of just one individual. The symbolic meaning of this unique button is thus open for
Button, 1840s-50s. Two hands resting on a book set into a two-piece gold-washed brass frame with a loop on the reverse for sewing to a garment. The button was discovered in the early 1980s in a flea market in Massachusetts. The use of buttons for political purposes in the United States began in the 1700s. For many years, the image was believed to represent an anti-slavery motif of two hands - one black, one white - resting on a Bible. Today, after detailed digital imaging, the photograph seems to show the hands of just one individual. The symbolic meaning of this unique button is thus open for reinterpretation.
Size: 4960px × 4920px
Photo credit: © Heritage Images / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: &, /, 19th, america, american, anti-slavery, art, black, bodies, body, button, century, color, colour, concept, country, daguerreotype, election, finger, gold, golden, hand, heritage, location, met, metropolitan, museum, nineteenth, photograph, photography, political, politics, slavery, states, togetherness, united, uniting, unity, unknown, usa, victorian, white
