To my knowledge the button box definitely predates the Depression.  My grandmother's buttons (stored in one of the drawers under her sewing machine cabinet) included buttons from her mother's stash.  My grandmother was born in 1888 and her stash probably reflected the late 1800's as well as her family-raising years from c1910 into the 1960's.
Button collectors are always looking for old button boxes in the hope that older (19th cent) and more interesting buttons will surface.
Susan

 

Susan Houghton
Laboratory Supervisor
Cultural Resources
Burns & McDonnell
9400 Ward Parkway
Kansas City, Missouri  64114
Tel: 816-822-3900 x2264
Fax: 816-822-3515
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>>> [log in to unmask] 03/14/02 10:42AM >>>
I have wondered if the button boxes we see today are simply a behavior born
from the Great Depression, or if the practice dates further back in time. I
would welcome anyone's comments on that.

I have benefitted greatly from hearing other folks thoughts on buttons in
trash dumps. Clearly, this is far more complicated than it appears on the
surface. I would expect people working in the rag industry would have
salvaged buttons for resale, especially elaborate carved shell and metal and
glass composits. Perhaps even the rag vendor himself would have had pots for
scrap buttons.
...

Ron May
Legacy 106, Inc.