1917 Springfield Armory Lapel Pin (5743), are their records to identify who this was issued to?

parallax_m42

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Dec 17, 2023
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Springfield Armory Lapel Pin 1794-1917.png
Springfield Armory Lapel Pin 1794-1917.1.png


I'm striking out finding much info about this. I see a few of them online, but none have both dates like this one, 1794-1917. Additionally, i have not seen any with a number code on them. This gives me hope there might be records? Anyone have any insight?

Thanks,

Alex
 

Upvote 15
It is a screw back lapel button. The screw nut was marked "WHITEHEAD & HOAG CO, NEWARK, N.J."
Some history:
During the Second World War Whitehead & Hoag employed over 400 workers but it could not successfully grow from a mid-sized family-owned company to a large corporation. In 1953 the last founders' family member with an active interest in the company died and the firm started deteriorating. One or two profitable years would be followed by several years of financial losses. In 1959, a long-time competitor, Bastian Bros. of Rochester, N.Y., bought the business.

It appears that more than a little vengefulness were at work in winding down operations. Rather than merging Whitehead & Hoag into Bastian's business, the new owner ordered the factory to be sold and all dies and records destroyed. Thus the carefully archived records and dies of many beautiful medals were lost.
The Armory is now the Springfield Armory National Historic Site, and is managed and operated by the National Parks Service. You might have some luck in contacting the NPS.
Don in SoCal
 

Last edited:
It is a screw back lapel button. The screw nut was marked "WHITEHEAD & HOAG CO, NEWARK, N.J."
Some history:
During the Second World War Whitehead & Hoag employed over 400 workers but it could not successfully grow from a mid-sized family-owned company to a large corporation. In 1953 the last founders' family member with an active interest in the company died and the firm started deteriorating. One or two profitable years would be followed by several years of financial losses. In 1959, a long-time competitor, Bastian Bros. of Rochester, N.Y., bought the business.

It appears that more than a little vengefulness were at work in winding down operations. Rather than merging Whitehead & Hoag into Bastian's business, the new owner ordered the factory to be sold and all dies and records destroyed. Thus the carefully archived records and dies of many beautiful medals were lost.
The Armory is now the Springfield Armory National Historic Site, and is managed and operated by the National Parks Service. You might have some luck in contacting the NPS.
Don in SoCal
Great job on the research !
 

It is a screw back lapel button. The screw nut was marked "WHITEHEAD & HOAG CO, NEWARK, N.J."
Some history:
During the Second World War Whitehead & Hoag employed over 400 workers but it could not successfully grow from a mid-sized family-owned company to a large corporation. In 1953 the last founders' family member with an active interest in the company died and the firm started deteriorating. One or two profitable years would be followed by several years of financial losses. In 1959, a long-time competitor, Bastian Bros. of Rochester, N.Y., bought the business.

It appears that more than a little vengefulness were at work in winding down operations. Rather than merging Whitehead & Hoag into Bastian's business, the new owner ordered the factory to be sold and all dies and records destroyed. Thus the carefully archived records and dies of many beautiful medals were lost.
The Armory is now the Springfield Armory National Historic Site, and is managed and operated by the National Parks Service. You might have some luck in contacting the NPS.
Don in SoCal
Thank you so much for the information. It is truly a sad state of affairs what happened and the way it went down. But I appreciate you providing the info nonetheless.
 

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