Did you just roll your eyes at the idea of the bent little piece of metal known as the paper clip should have it’s own holiday?
Have you ever worked in an office? If not, we can see how you might not get it—and that’s alright, we’re about to explain everything to you.
But if you have, you know exactly where we’re coming from—and don’t worry, we have some interesting information for you, too. So let’s get on with National Paperclip Day, shall we?
National Paperclip Day Timeline
Patent for straight-line paper fastener
British inventor Samuel Slocum patents a machine for making pins on paper, an early attempt to fasten sheets together before modern paper clips existed.
Samuel B. Fay’s bent-wire paper clip
Samuel B. Fay receives a U.S. patent for a bent-wire device meant to attach tickets to fabric, one of the first patents to recognize clipping papers together.
Cornelius J. Brosnan’s improved paper holder
Cornelius J. Brosnan patents an “improvement in paper-fasts” that relies on a bent wire design, showing the growing interest in reusable paper fasteners.
Rise of the Gem paper clip
The familiar double-loop “Gem” style paper clip is produced in Britain and sold widely in the United States, becoming the dominant office clip design.
Johan Vaaler’s paper clip patents
Norwegian inventor Johan Vaaler secures patents in Germany and the United States for a paper clip design, later embraced in Norway as a national innovation.
Paper clip as symbol of Norwegian resistance
During the German occupation of Norway in World War II, many Norwegians wear paper clips on their lapels as a quiet sign of unity and resistance.
“Clippy” brings the paper clip to digital life
Microsoft introduces the animated paper clip assistant, nicknamed Clippy, in Office 97, turning the humble clip into a pop culture technology icon.
How to Celebrate National Paperclip Day
Everyone knows that paper clips can be used to hold papers together. But did you know how many other things can be done with them?
What To Do with Paperclips
This National Paperclip Day, maybe take a little time to find out just how many other things you can do with them, and how many uses there are that you just never thought of. To name but a few examples, paper clips can be used:
- As emergency key chains (they’re really built almost the same as a normal key chain!)
- As emergency zipper tabs (few things are more irritating than being locked inside your jacket!)
- As DIY fish hooks (because we sometimes run out of authorized equipment, and the fish won’t care as long as there’s a worm!)
- As emergency hair barrettes (sometimes you just need to get that hair out of your face!)
- To hang ornaments whose little stringy thingies have torn (colored paper clips could actually add some color to the tree!)
- As lottery ticket scratchers (for those times when you just got your nails done and don’t want all that gray gunk under them!)
- To unclog narrow holes, like a spray can nozzles, salt and pepper shakers, glue bottle tips, etc.
We could go on, but you get the idea—and feel free to come up with some of your own, too! Paper clips are one of the most versatile little bits of metal ever made, so let’s get celebrating National Paperclip Day!
Read Interesting Facts and Stories
Another way to celebrate National Paperclip Day is to simply do a bit of research and digging online for some interesting facts and stories.
You may think that paper clips are boring, but you would be surprised! In fact, one man from Canada – Kyle Macdonald – actually managed to swap a red paperclip for a property.
He did this by completing a number of trades online, each time swapping his item for something more valuable. So, he started by swapping his red paper clip for a pen shaped like a fish, and so it continued, until he actually ended up with a house!
Watch “Paper Clips”
Another way to observe National Paperclip Day is to watch Paper Clips, which is an American documentary film that was released in 2004. It was directed by Elliot and Fab Berlin, with Joe Fab producing and writing the film. It is the perfect film to watch on this day, as it is about the Paper Clips Project.
This is a project whereby a middle school class aims to collect six million paper clips in order to represent the six million Jewish people who were killed by the Nazis.
It really is an amazing story. It involves Whitewell Middle School of Whitwell, Tennessee. The principal of the school, Linda M. Hooper, asked David Smith – the Assistant Principal – to find a voluntary project for after-school that would teach children about tolerance.
David Smith started a Holocaust education program alongside Sandra Roberts, with classes beginning in the fall of 1998.
Once the students started to learn about the Holocaust, they could not believe the sheer scale of it. They asked the principal if they would be able to collect something that could represent the lives that were lost because of this tragedy.
Mrs. Hooper said if they were able to locate something that was linked to WW2 or the Holocaust, they could. So, the students embarked on some research, and they discovered that a Norwegian, called Johan Vaaler, designed a loop of metal. They also discovered that paperclips were worn on the lapels of Norwegians during WW2 as a silent protest against Nazi occupation.
Because of this, the students decided that there would collect six million paper clips as a representation of the six million Jewish people that were believed to have lost their lives while Adolf Hilter was in charge of the Naxi government.
The project did not receive a lot of attention in the beginning. However, it started to snowball after two journalists who were born in German during WW2 discovered the project: Peter and Dagmar Schroeder. The film explains this beautiful and heart-warming story, and it has won a number of awards as a consequence.
At the Rome International Film Festival in 2004, it was awarded the Best Overall Film, Best Director, Best Original Score.
The National Board of Review also awarded it an NBR Award for Top Five Documentaries in the same year. So, if you have not watched this film before, we definitely recommend watching it on National Paperclip Day!
History of National Paperclip Day
The first patent for a bent wire paper clip was awarded in the Samuel B. Fay in 1867 in the United States. Originally, the paper clip was designed for attaching tickets to fabric, although the patent recognized that it could be used to attach papers together.
However, that model of a paper clip did not resemble the one we know today all that much. The paper clip as we know it was most likely designed by Norwegian inventor Johan Vaaler.
Years later, during World War II, the paper clip was used as a symbol of the Norwegian resistance to Nazi German occupation. Meant to show solidarity with other Norwegians during those difficult times, paper clips were worn in coat lapels by many. The Nazis saw this show of solidarity as a threat, and they soon prohibited paper clips altogether, threatening people who dared wear them with severe punishment.
In fact, an enormous paper clip over a meter wide and five meters tall was erected in Sandvika, Norway, to remind people about the role this tiny object played in the nation’s history.
You have to admit you never thought paper clips had such an interesting history, don’t you? Starting in 2015, National Paperclip Day is now celebrated every year on this day.
Facts About National Paperclip Day
The Gem Paper Clip Was Never Patented but Became the Global Standard
The familiar double-loop “Gem” paper clip that dominates offices worldwide was never actually patented, yet it outcompeted dozens of patented rivals to become the standard design by the early 20th century.
Its rounded shape avoids sharp bends that could tear paper, while providing multiple points of contact that hold sheets firmly with minimal metal.
By 1904, American office-supply catalogs were already listing the Gem as the preferred style, and nearly all modern paper clips are still based on that unpatented pattern.
Norwegians Turned the Paper Clip into a Quiet Weapon of Resistance
During World War II, Norwegians adopted the paper clip as a discreet symbol of unity and resistance to Nazi occupation after other overt symbols were banned. Wearing a clip on the lapel signaled solidarity and national cohesion when open protest was dangerous.
The gesture became so widespread that German authorities eventually prohibited the practice and threatened punishment, cementing the clip’s status as a cultural symbol far beyond its office role.
Early Paper-Fastening Devices Were Clumsy and Often Damaged Documents
Before modern paper clips were common, people relied on straight pins, ribbons, eyelets, and later staples to keep papers together. These methods often punctured or permanently altered documents and were slower to use.
The arrival of flexible bent-wire clips in the late 19th century allowed papers to be held securely without holes, then released and reused, transforming everyday filing practices in law firms, banks, and government offices.
Modern Paper Clips Are Tiny Examples of Precision Wire Engineering
A standard steel paper clip may look simple, but it is the product of careful wire-drawing and bending processes that control thickness, springiness, and corrosion resistance.
Manufacturers draw low-carbon steel into thin wire, often plate it with zinc or nickel to prevent rust, and then shape it with automated machines that can form thousands of clips per minute to tight tolerances. This subtle engineering lets clips flex repeatedly without breaking while still gripping paper firmly.
Paper Clip Designs Once Competed Fiercely in the Patent Office
From the late 1800s into the early 1900s, the U.S. Patent Office received a rush of applications for different paper-fastening devices, including many wire clip shapes that never caught on.
Inventors experimented with triangular, butterfly, and star-shaped forms, all promising better grip or easier use.
Despite this crowded field, only a handful of designs survived in the marketplace, revealing how small differences in usability and manufacturing costs can determine which everyday objects endure.
A Holocaust Memorial in Tennessee Uses Paper Clips to Represent Lives Lost
In Whitwell, Tennessee, a middle school Holocaust education project grew into a permanent memorial that uses millions of paper clips to represent victims of the Nazi genocide. Students began collecting clips in the late 1990s as a tangible way to grasp the scale of six million murdered Jews.
Donations from around the world eventually filled a German railcar placed on the school grounds, turning the humble clip into a powerful educational and commemorative tool.
Steel Paper Clips Are Readily Recyclable, but Coatings Matter
Most conventional paper clips are made from carbon steel, which can be recycled along with other scrap metal if collected and sorted properly.
However, plastic-coated and vinyl-clad clips can contaminate metal recycling streams unless the coatings are removed, and they add unnecessary polymer waste.
Environmental agencies and waste-management guides generally recommend using bare metal clips or reusing existing ones to reduce both resource use and landfill burden.
