“Unlocking History, One Button at a Time”: 2025 Baltimore Antique Arms Show

The Baltimore antique arm show is one of my favorite events of the year. The show is one of the largest antique arms shows in the nation and has long been considered one of the nation's very best! It’s incredible to see such a wide variety of weapons, ranging from medieval times up to the 19th century. However, the show doesn’t just feature firearms. There’s a large variety of Revolutionary War and Civil War period relics, curios, images, and uniform buttons and insignia.

My favorite part of any show is interacting with attendees and seeing old friends who’ve been in the business as long as I can remember—but one of this year's highlights was the opportunity to share some information about some items I had at my table with Civil War News magazine.

You can check out the series of videos titled "Unlocking history, one button at a time" below. The content was intended for Facebook consumption and has been broken into a number of parts.

• Part1: Intro

• Part 2: What’s on display

• Part 3: Arkansas State Seal button

• Part 4: Display of Confederate State Seal buttons

• Part 5: Republic of Texas button & info

• Part 6: Republic of Texas button (cont.)

• Part 7: Republic of Texas Navy button & Info

• Part 8: Civil War era Texas state seal button

• Part 9: War of 1812 era buttons on display

• Part 10: 1812 era Infantry & Artillery Officer buttons

• Part 11: Transition/Hard Rubber Civil War Sharpshooter button

• Part 12: Civil War Sharpshooter Officer & Enlisted buttons

• Part 13: Sharpshooter buttons (cont.) American Military Buttons book info

• Part 14: Book content & photos

• Part 15: Ending & where to learn more
  

More information about my book American Military Buttons: An Interpretive Study, 1785-1835 and my catalog, containing hundreds of uniform buttons and relics from Revolutionary War, War of 1812, and Civil War can be found here.