Are these collar buttons rail road related in any way? Thanks for your help.

Jack

Jack,
Yes, I believe they are for the Brotherhood of Railway Clerks. Hopefully, if I am in error, Larry Buchan will correct me, if not perhaps he will tell us something of the Brotherhood's history.

Ed Ueberall
NAWCC 49688
IHC Member 34
The Escapement

Jack & Ed

Would that be a quill and ink bottle depicted? Also, what is crossed with the quill and what is the item where the "C" comes together?

Very interesting items indeed.

Thanks for sharing Jack!

John D. Duvall
Vice President, Education

The item where the "C" comes together sure looks like it could be a Union label.



Stu

I think Ed and Stu are both correct in their guesses. I also think that "what is crossed with the quill" is probably the representation of an ordinary wooden pencil, but that's just a guess.

Neat items.........

======================

Steve Maddox
Past President, NAWCC Chapter #62
North Little Rock, Arkansas
IHC Charter Member 49

Hi Guys,

Thanks for your responses. Stu, I examined the symbols under a couple of different loupes and it does not appear to be a union label. But, it is hard to say as the symbol is pretty small.

I was organizing and cleaning out several box lots from auctions I have attended over the last couple of years and I ran across these in the bottom of a box with some pretty ordinary pinbacks and tie tacs. I guess I need to pay more attention!

Jack

Jack:

Here is some historical background on the Railway Clerks that I found on their web site;

Railway clerks organized into a union in 1889 when 33 Railroad clerks from Sedalia, Missouri met on December 29 and formed Local Lodge No. 1 of a union they named the Order of Railroad Clerks of America they became the Brotherhood of Railway Clerks in 1904, then in 1919 they became the Brotherhood of Railway and Steamship Clerks, Freight Handlers, Express and Station Employees which was known as BRAC, in the years since then the union welcomed into its ranks the members of half a dozen other labor organizations among them the Transportation Communication Employees Union (which were formerly known as the Order of Railroad Telegraphers), the United Transport Service Employees Union, the Railway Patrolman's International Union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the American Railway and Airway Supervisors Association, the Western Railway Supervisors Association, and the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen in 1987 the name was changed to the "Transportation Communications International Union"

Larry Buchan
"Buchaneer"

IHC Charter Member 28
IHC Life Member (L7)

I found this at an antique show today. I would never have know what it was without the great information above.

Tom Seymour
NAWCC# 41293
IHC Executive V.P.