Quality First

Gold and black text over yellowed background. 

This promotional button advertises the Whitehead & Hoag Company.  This company was started by Benjamin S. Whitehead and Chester R. Hoag in 1892. It was to later become one of the largest advertising novelties manufacturers, and the company was the largest button manufacturer. Interestingly, the company would pay children who lived around their factory to place pins and paper in the back of buttons, since the machines lacked the capacity to do so. The company accepted button orders from groups like the Socialists, the Communists, among others. In WWII, they halted regular button production and transitioned into producing identification buttons. They did eventually return to producing buttons sometime after WWII ended. The company was later sold to the Bastian Brothers and the company’s original name was retired in 1965.

WHITEHEAD & HOAG COMPANY HISTORY. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.tedhake.com/viewuserdefinedpage.aspx?pn=whco