Jake and Tree Button Pin

A lapel or backpack button of Jake and the Christmas tree.

Willa Cather commissioned W. T. Benda to create pen-and-ink drawings for My Ántonia: eight were published in the novel when it was released in 1918 and several original drawings were donated to the National Willa Cather Collections and Archives.

"At last I saw a dark spot moving on the west hill, beside the half-buried cornfield, where the sky was taking on a coppery flush from the sun that did not quite break through. I put on my cap and ran out to meet Jake. When I got to the pond, I could see that he was bringing in a little cedar tree across his pommel. He used to help my father cut Christmas trees for me in Virginia, and he had not forgotten how much I liked them." —My Ántonia

Pin is 2" in diameter.