buttonhook
Dictionary result for buttonhook
/ˈbʌt(ə)nhʊk/noun
- 1.a small hook with a long handle for fastening tight buttons (often formerly on buttoned boots).
It consists of a hook fixed to a handle which may be simple or decorative.
Sometimes they were given away as promotions with product advertising on the handle.
To use, the hook end is inserted through the buttonhole to capture the button by the shank and draw it through the opening.
Between the 1890’s and 1920’s they were necessary items. Almost everyone had his or her own button hook to use, perhaps as individual as a toothbrush today.
This is all well and good, and it sounds like a very practical product, which of course was embellished and made out of precious metals for the upper classes. There is however another thing they came in pretty handy for.
‘The Buttonhook Men’
Doctors checked those passing through Ellis Island for more than 60 diseases and disabilities that might disqualify them from entry into the United States. Those suspected of being afflicted with a having a disease or disability were marked with chalk and detained for closer examination. All immigrants were checked closely for trachoma, a contagious eye condition that caused more detainments and deportations than any other ailment. To check for trachoma, the examiner used a buttonhook to turn each immigrant’s eyelids inside out, a procedure remembered by many Ellis Island arrivals as particularly painful and terrifying.
Very Multifunctional.
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