How the idea was born

Two simple events motivated the Italian-Panamanian family to present the collection in a museum and become involved in the museum world.

During a visit to family and friends in Italy, an interest in buttons was born when observing how common it was to find the traditional biscuit box, transformed into the button box, passed down from generation to generation. On examining the contents of these boxes, buttons of all kinds and types were found, of different materials, years, manufacture, colours and shapes. The differences between the contents of one box and another were obvious.

This aroused our curiosity and led us to look for the motivations, the social messages conveyed by these small objects.

In the end we came to consider that, although it was an everyday object, and could go unnoticed, it had our history, and therefore deserved to be collected.

Subsequently we have observed, also in other countries, that buttons represent the testimony of facts and habits, and for this reason we have strengthened our interest through the study of their relationship with our history, economy, fashion, habits, religion and more.

Thus, our research has led us to discover that there are button museums that represent a tourist offer in Italy as well as in England and the United States.

Thus was born the motivation to expose the collection to the public through the creation, first of a Foundation and, later, of a Museum.