Uniforms Buttons bottom side up.

major bill

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
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Aug 25, 2012
Visited the Michigan Military Heritage Museum yesterday. This vest which was worn by an officer that won a Medal of Honor, has all the buttons bottom side up.

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This is a nice military vest but I wondered why the buttons are sewn on bottom side up. Would this be intentional or simply a poor sewing job? The said officer was not concerned about his looks?
 
Visited the Michigan Military Heritage Museum yesterday. This vest which was worn by an officer that won a Medal of Honor, has all the buttons bottom side up.

View attachment 421702
This is a nice military vest but I wondered why the buttons are sewn on bottom side up. Would this be intentional or simply a poor sewing job? The said officer was not concerned about his looks?
Quite possibly re-sewn by a subsequent owner, conservator or other, would need to see the thread.
 
Quite possibly re-sewn by a subsequent owner, conservator or other, would need to see the thread.
This might be, but why would a conservator sew on buttons bottom side up? With some bottons, perhaps one could not tell top from bottom, but the Michigan buttons had a deer an elk. Even a poorly trained conservator could tell if a deer was being sewn on bottom side up.
 
This might be, but why would a conservator sew on buttons bottom side up? With some bottons, perhaps one could not tell top from bottom, but the Michigan buttons had a deer an elk. Even a poorly trained conservator could tell if a deer was being sewn on bottom side up.
I agree that it is not likely that a museum person would have done this. So (opinion) probably it came to the museum that way. I'll propose that the buttons were all sitting in a box somewhere and when they were given to grandma to sew on, her eyes were not what they used to be and . . .......... the rest is history.
 
This might be, but why would a conservator sew on buttons bottom side up? With some bottons, perhaps one could not tell top from bottom, but the Michigan buttons had a deer an elk. Even a poorly trained conservator could tell if a deer was being sewn on bottom side up.
There are many conservators these days that really do not care, particularly if the item is not in their area of concentration. The conservator could have also sent it out for the repair, but most likely done before the donation.
 
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The vest came from the Withington family. Colonel/General William H. Withington has many of his personal items at the Ella Sharp Museum, Jackson Michigan. I have no information about when the Ella Sharp Museum got these items. This vest, a cap, his Medal of Honor, and some other items are housed at the Michigan Military Heritage Museum. I have no idea how the Michigan Military Heritage Museum came by these items.
 
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