Alan Mays' photos with the keyword: buttons

"Easter Seals. Space Ranger." A tin-lithograph tab button pin issued by the Easter Seals charity in the late 1950s. The satellite depicted on the pin looks similar to Vanguard 1 , which was launched by the United States in 1958. It's still orbiiting the earth today even though its solar-powered radio transmitter stopped working in 1964.

Celluloid medallions and plaques like this were popular during the early part of the twentieth century. The design on this colorful plaque is dated 1927. For additional examples, see my small album of Celluloid Photographic Medallions (including the two below) or head over to Flickr to take a look at the George Eastman House's collection of Celluloid Medallions & Buttons .

A "Please Push Button" sign (featuring a manicule or pointing hand mark, like this: ☞) at the John Brown Wax Museum, Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, August 4, 2009.

A brightly colored celluloid medallion with a photo of a cute kid on a Taylor-Tot stroller for the Taylor-Tot Stroller Vintage Memories group. For additional examples, see the George Eastman House's fascinating and extensive collection of Celluloid Medallions & Buttons on Flickr.

A hold it photo (people holding something) for the Vintage Photos Theme Park . Caption: "By durn, Samenthy, this beats the old pump all holler. Push jest a leetle harder and she'll be here." Sign on wall: "Hotel Astorf-Waldoria. Ring once for bell boy, twice [for] ice water, three [times for] hot water." Name on trunk: "Silas Green, Wayback, O." Printed along the sides: "The 'Perfec' Stereograph. (Trade mark.) Patented April 14, 1903. Other patents pending. H. C. White Co., Publishers. General offices and works, North Bennington, Vt., U.S.A. Copyright 1903 by H. C. White Co. 5587 (2)." This comic stereoscopic card (see the full card below) shows two country bumpkins who are visting the city and staying at the highfalutin Hotel Astorf-Waldoria (a thinly veiled reference, of course, to the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City). Unfamiliar with big-city ways and new-fangled technology, Samantha (or "Samenthy," as her husband Silas pronounces it) is pushing the call button (normally used to summon hotel staff) while Silas holds a water pitcher below the mouthpiece of the wall-mounted telephone. In their naivety, Samantha and Silas have misunderstood the sign ("Ring twice for ice water") and have mistaken the phone for a pump that will provide water once the button is pushed. In 1903, at a time when indoor plumbing and telephones were less common in rural areas, viewers of this stereographic photo could laugh at the silly antics of this foolish backwoods couple from Wayback, Ohio. Looking at the image a hundred years later, we can catch a glimpse of the different styles of clothing, wallpaper, carpet, and furniture that were popular back then, and we can also consider how the modern technology that we take for granted today--faucets with running water and mobile phones--has made the humor here obsolete.

A comic stereoscopic card. For additional information, see Silas and Samantha at the Astorf-Waldoria, 1903 .

"Latest styles in boots and shoes at H. O. Robinson's, opp. Hampshire House, Ware."