Button did get some credit (for some value of "credit") in the Mr. Show sketch "Founding Fathers."
posted by babelfish at 6:48 AM on December 15, 2015 [5 favorites]

DOGPILE ON GWINNETT!
posted by duffell at 6:48 AM on December 15, 2015 [7 favorites]

For what it's worth, in the Fallout universe, it appears that Button Gwinnett rather than Sam Adams was the Declaration signer who founded a brewery in Boston.
posted by tobascodagama at 6:55 AM on December 15, 2015 [10 favorites]

Gwinnett was mentioned on the last Going Deep with David Rees episode, How to Sign Your Name.
posted by Cash4Lead at 6:57 AM on December 15, 2015 [4 favorites]

Dude also died in a duel. That shit is real.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:57 AM on December 15, 2015

Also, our cat's middle name is Button, after Button Gwinnett. His first name is Aloysius.
posted by chainsofreedom at 7:04 AM on December 15, 2015 [1 favorite]

For what it's worth, in the Fallout universe, it appears that Button Gwinnett rather than Sam Adams was the Declaration signer who founded a brewery in Boston.

There is also a robot that thinks it is Button Gwinnett holed up in the bowels of the History Museum on the Washington Mall in DC.
posted by Rock Steady at 7:15 AM on December 15, 2015

There is also a robot that thinks it is Button Gwinnett holed up in the bowels of the History Museum

The robot was programmed to act like Button Gwinnett, because it's part of an exhibit! But that's some vault dwellers for you - no appreciation for pre-war culture.
posted by Smart Dalek at 7:35 AM on December 15, 2015

Eight comments and nobody's mentioned Asimov? I'm disappointed in MetaFilter. That story is where I first heard of Button Gwinnett.
posted by languagehat at 7:39 AM on December 15, 2015 [2 favorites]

Nobody remembers Button Gwinnett?! The people of Gwinnett County, GA do! (Probably? Maybe not. Who knows what their county is name for?)
posted by Panjandrum at 7:51 AM on December 15, 2015 [2 favorites]

Lin's face when he says he's John Adams just KILLS ME.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:53 AM on December 15, 2015 [4 favorites]

Lin's face when he says he's John Adams just KILLS ME.

It's such a delicious subtext moment for us Hamilton trash ... er, fans.
posted by lunasol at 8:12 AM on December 15, 2015 [11 favorites]

Was Button a common name at the time? I'm so puzzled by this. I know of the weird Puritan names, but this seems too secular for that.
posted by jeather at 8:12 AM on December 15, 2015

I really want to know which writers came up with this bit. I'd bet the Asimov story was known to them.

PS: This bit made my wife remind me that both of these assholes are on her "List"
posted by DigDoug at 8:23 AM on December 15, 2015

I don't know Mr. Gwinnett's story, but many times weird names in that period was due to the practice of taking your mother's maiden name as your first name.
posted by emjaybee at 8:57 AM on December 15, 2015 [2 favorites]

Radiolab did a piece on this guy a little while back.
posted by dzkalman at 8:59 AM on December 15, 2015

The Button Gwinnett story has no HERCULES MULLIGAN though, so I'm not interested.

Bonus Hamilton link: Ham4Ham with Alex Lacamoire and The Hamilton Orchestra, featuring an outdoor version of the show's exit music and some very rocking strings.
posted by zachlipton at 9:18 AM on December 15, 2015 [5 favorites]

I don't know Mr. Gwinnett's story, but many times weird names in that period was due to the practice of taking your mother's maiden name as your first name.

This practice persisted at least until the early 20th Century, as my Granpa Quester will attest. (Or would if he were still alive.)
posted by notyou at 9:56 AM on December 15, 2015 [1 favorite]

We used to have a Gwinnett Street in Augusta, but in the 1970s it was renamed Laney Walker Boulevard after a pioneering black educator and a black political dynasty. Lest anyone think the city council was acting out of a newfound sense of racial justice, this was about the same time they built the Calhoun expressway. Every schoolchild in Georgia knows who Button Gwinnett was, as the list of Georgia signers of contains only 3 names so is easy to memorize. Lyman Hall and George Walton are the others. Walton way remain a major thoroughfare in Augusta. I'm not sure what we have named after Hall, but there is probably something.
posted by TedW at 10:01 AM on December 15, 2015 [2 favorites]

Apparently there is a Hall St. here too, but it is only a few feet long. Walton, meanwhile, apparently gets both a Street and a Way named after him. It seems he was from Augusta and was an enemy of Gwinnett, which explains the street naming stuff somewhat.
posted by TedW at 10:09 AM on December 15, 2015 [2 favorites]

In junior high, we had an assignment to pick a signer of the constitution and write a biography of them. I chose Button Gwinnett. At the conclusion I wrote that his parents named him Button because the zipper hadn't been invented yet.

Readers, believe me when I say I deserved a better grade.
posted by zippy at 10:46 AM on December 15, 2015 [16 favorites]

it would be my suspicion that miranda at least helped with the writing, if he didn't do the lion's share of the work. that man writes like he's running out of time...
posted by nadawi at 11:08 AM on December 15, 2015 [10 favorites]

The little-known signer of the Declaration of Independence has never gotten the glory the other founding fathers got.

Theoretically he might have done as a soldier had he not gotten himself killed by a man ostensibly on his own side.

But I digress. The question is, how many names on this list you can really identify?

Extra points if you can match faces to names.
posted by BWA at 11:54 AM on December 15, 2015

Panjandrum: Nobody remembers Button Gwinnett?! The people of Gwinnett County, GA do! (Probably? Maybe not. Who knows what their county is name for?)

Well the bar in the Marriott near Gwinnett Place Mall is named for him, so… yes?
posted by ob1quixote at 12:12 PM on December 15, 2015

TedW: my grandparent's generation always referred to it as Gwinnett Street. Depending on who they were talking to people in my parents generation would switch back and forth between the names - my mom would tell her mother that something was off Gwinnett Street, but would tell a younger coworker that it was off Laney Walker. Since the name change came when I was in elementary school, most people my age usually said Laney Walker since that's what the street signs said.

And yeah, pretty much everyone who went to school in Georgia knows who Button Gwinnett was.
posted by ralan at 12:45 PM on December 15, 2015 [1 favorite]

You know - David Cross was originally from Georgia. Now that I think about it, I bet that's how it got into the sketch. :)
posted by symbioid at 12:53 PM on December 15, 2015

Excuse me, I’m looking for the place where we yell "Gwinnett County represent!"
posted by bongo_x at 12:56 PM on December 15, 2015 [2 favorites]

it would be my suspicion that miranda at least helped with the writing, if he didn't do the lion's share of the work. that man writes like he's running out of time...

Man, the man is non-stop.

so sorry, I couldn't help it. I just love that it's become more and more clear that Hamilton as a character in this play is basically Lin-Miranda's id. All the ambition and drive to produce, but snarky and combative where Lin's public persona is relentlessly positive and affirming.
posted by lunasol at 1:16 PM on December 15, 2015 [6 favorites]

The Georgia Historical Society has the set of dueling pistols that killed Gwinnett. They are on public display in Savannah, Georgia.
posted by arcolz at 1:43 PM on December 15, 2015 [2 favorites]

lunasol - i think that it was with in the heights where lin-manuel was positive that he was going to die before opening night, and he's talked about how that (luckily false) premonition helped him get into the head of his hamilton character - so yeah, i totally agree hamilton (and bits of a bunch of the other characters) are miranda spilled out on the page.
posted by nadawi at 2:51 PM on December 15, 2015 [1 favorite]

Excuse me, I’m looking for the place where we yell "Gwinnett County represent!"

Sadly, the obvious place for this boosterism no longer exists.
posted by Panjandrum at 4:27 PM on December 15, 2015 [2 favorites]

The Georgia Historical Society has the set of dueling pistols that killed Gwinnett. They are on public display in Savannah, Georgia.

Of note, just down the coast from Savannah is McIntosh County, named after family of the man who killed Gwinnett, Lachlan McIntosh. And now I'm envisioning some fierce inter-county re-enactments.

Also of note, with 159 counties, Georgia has more counties than every state but Texas. This includes the delicious trio of Coffee, Bacon, and Peach Counties. Also, Butts lol.
posted by Panjandrum at 4:38 PM on December 15, 2015 [2 favorites]

Sadly, the obvious place for this boosterism no longer exists.

I am shocked. I didn’t even know this.
posted by bongo_x at 5:54 PM on December 15, 2015

Panjandrum: “Sadly, the obvious place for this boosterism no longer exists.”

Not to mention they should have painted over "Great" and replaced it with "Full" 20 years before they knocked them down.

I was also kind of horrified to find out that that hotel isn't a Marriott anymore, and the bar isn't called "Button's" anymore.
posted by ob1quixote at 6:24 PM on December 15, 2015

Had to quickly check and make sure everybody is still somebody in Snellville.
posted by bongo_x at 6:34 PM on December 15, 2015 [3 favorites]

TedW: I'm not sure what we have named after Hall, but there is probably something.

Clearly it ought to be some sort of building. (I may or may not have that name in real life and have thought of this joke before. Someday I'll have enough money to donate to a college and make this dream reality…)

Also it's a sign of how unremarkable Button must be that I've read that Asimov story but completely forgot who it was about.
posted by traveler_ at 10:15 PM on December 15, 2015

I'm just cracking up about the fact that nearly the entirety of his Wikipedia article's sections on legacy and popular culture center around his signature being so rare, primarily because of his very short career.

His mark on the world: being just famous enough that people would collect his signature. But not famous enough that people care about what he did.
posted by Gordafarin at 12:24 PM on December 16, 2015 [3 favorites]

I don't know Mr. Gwinnett's story, but many times weird names in that period was due to the practice of taking your mother's maiden name as your first name.

I was curious about this so I looked it up, and indeed: Button's mother was Anne Eames Button.
posted by Gordafarin at 12:32 PM on December 16, 2015 [3 favorites]

I was also kind of horrified to find out that that hotel isn't a Marriott anymore, and the bar isn't called "Button's" anymore.

I suspect the history nerds got tired of explaining to the grammar nerds that it was not actually a grocer's apostrophe.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:31 PM on January 12, 2016