Collection Highlights
The Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands
Date:
Object Number:
LIB.QH41.C26.1974
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Museum Collections
Luce Center
Framed set of bone buttons, button molds, and iron tool (33) excavated at Fort H
Object Number:
INV.5940.164-196
Date:
1779-1783
Medium:
Bone, iron
Dimensions:
largest: 3 x 7/8 in. ( 7.6 x 2.2 cm )
Description:
Bone buttons, button molds, and iron cutting tool; the six molds are flat strips of bone with circular cutouts; twenty-six buttons pierced with holes; cutting tool is flat strip of iron with small point at one end.
Gallery Label:
These buttons were excavated by the Field Exploration Committee from a refuse pit at Fort Haldimand, a British fort on Carleton Island in the St. Lawrence River in New York, just below the Canadian border. Built in 1779, the fort commanded passage of the river and was retained by the British until its destruction by American forces in 1812. British or Loyalist soldiers cut the molds from animal bones, and shaped buttons in the molds using the cutting tool.
Due to ongoing research, information about this object is subject to change.
