Object Record
Images
Metadata
Object Name |
Brooch |
Catalog Number |
2003.36.66 |
Date |
ca. 1950 |
Material(s) |
Glass/White metal//Pearl/Chrome |
Dimensions |
H-1.875 W-1.25 D-0.438 inches |
Description |
This chrome plated "Mother" pin is a ribbon pin with an open-work heart suspended below. It has a safety clasp. The heart is decorated with four pink rhinestones and four seed pearls. The ribbon has four seed pearls around one pink rhinestone. In the center of the heart is a plastic heart with a rose and the word "Mother" on it. |
Notes |
Curatorila notes - "Mother pins" have been around since Victorian times but only became really popular in the 1940s when a generation of young men marched off to fight in World War II and left worried loved ones behind. Mother pins often were sold at the military base exchange, then shipped home as keepsakes and tokens of love. The most common examples featured gold-filled wire twisted to spell "Mother" atop a base of mother-of-pearl in the shape of a leaf or a heart. They reflect a time of innocence and sincerity missing today. From the jewelry boxes of either Melda Manning Anderson (1910-1988) or Verda Manning Ball (1913-1993) of Pine Knot in McCreary County. The sisters were very close and after Anderson's death in 1988, she left her jewelry to her sister, who combined it with her own. |
Collection |
Ronald M. Ball Collection |
People |
Anderson, Melda Manning Ball, Verda Manning |
Subjects |
Jewelry Mothers |
Search Terms |
Commemoration |
Physical Holder |
Kentucky Historical Society - KHS |