Green text overlaid onto offset white sun on yellow background.

Bond Bread was a product of the General Baking Company, a conglomeration of several large bakeries that merged in the 1910s. Bond Bread got its name from the guarantee printed on the package warranting "the loaf contained within this germ and dust proof wrapper is made from the following pure food materials, and no other ingredients of any kind: best spring wheat flour, compressed yeast, pure filtered water, best fine salt, pure lard, cane sugar, and condensed milk.” This early quality assurance reinforced the brand's pure and healthful image. A money back guarantee was added in 1925.

Research into the nutritional benefits of "sunshine vitamin D" in the early 1920s brought about a fortifying craze. In 1931 General Baking licensed patents for fortifying Bond Bread, which prompted its primary competitor Wonder Bread to add even more nutrients. One of the oddest products to jump on this bandwagon was Schlitz beer. 

By 1930 Bond Bread accounted for 90% of the company's sales. The Great Depression took its toll and by 1933 revenue had fallen 66%, later to rebound. The brand stuck around until profit margins sank; the Bond division was unloaded entirely by 1972.

White background with black text. Illustration  has yellow, red, blue and peach and portrays a man with a more facial hair than head hair and long eye glasses. 

Rube Goldberg, the cartoonist responsible for these "I'm the Guy" buttons is more famously known for his illustrations of inventions that were funny and complicated. His name is in the Webster dictionary is defined as "accomplishing by complex means what seemingly could be done simply". He was a dedicated cartoonist, doing both political and comical cartoons. Goldberg is also a founding member of the National Cartoonist Society whose Reuben Award is named after his proper name, Rueben.

The popularity of the "I'm the guy..." slogans caught the eye of tobacco marketers. So if you wanted one of these buttons back in the 1910's, you'd have to buy some of their cigarettes. 

There was even an "I'm the guy" song !

Upper part of button has blue text on white background, lower part has orange text on blue background.

White lettering and smiley face on red background.

The origins of this BEEF button are not certain, but it's likely the work of the one of the beef promotion agencies as part of their efforts to increase consumer beef consumption.

This button is a variation of the classic yellow smiley face which is comprised of a yellow circle, two black dots for eyes and a black arc ending in serifs for a mouth. It  was designed in 1963 by by commercial artist, Harvey Ross Ball. Ball was commissioned by The State Mutual Life Insurance Company to create a happy face to raise the morale of their employees. His version was created in 10 minutes. The design was printed onto more than 50 million buttons. Neither Ball nor the company copyrighted this smiley, so it was continually used by other businesses in their promotions.

The design and concept is quite simple and was definitely used before Ball’s 1963 version. However his has become the most iconic. Variations have been used for advertising campaigns and in popular culture ever since.

Suspiciously bald barber wearing tasseled red cap, blue smock and white pants, wields comb and giant scissors over young boy sitting on a merry-go-round horse with a red saddle. Top and bottom sections of the button are white with black text, the center features the illustration on a black background.

Barber Bill's Happy Land Barber Shops catered to children ages two to twelve and were located inside major department stores such as Gimbel and Culbertson's during the 1920s. Kids enjoyed riding atop the hobby horse while Barber Bill kept parents pleased by promising the highest degree of sanitation and patience.

"Barber Bill and his Barber Shop are to the children what Santa Claus is at Christmas time. He is the man who makes them happy while they have their hair cut on Hobby Horse Chairs."

A peach colored hot air balloon attached to a red trolley car full of people, set to rise over the Pacific coastline. Illustration fills the button, sky to land; red text on top circles around the balloon in the sky, black text on bottom wraps around the ground.

The Balloon Route Trolley Trip was one of several sightseeing excursions that ran daily from Los Angeles on Pacific Electric Railway tracks in the early 1900s. (map of routes) The original tour route resembled a balloon-shape, hence the name.

The Excursion Manager, Charles Merritt (C.M.) Pierce, took visitors from Los Angeles to the ocean, then north 28 miles along the coast, visiting ten beaches and eight cities. The Balloon Route included visits to Hollywood and Beverly Hills, National Soldier’s Home, Playa del Rey, Redondo Beach, Moonstone Beach, Venice of America, and free admission to The Camera Obscura at Santa Monica. Each day long guided trip was sold for one dollar per person. "The Best $1.00 Trip in the World"

White lettering on edge of rim, blue lettering in the center, with red background

The Auburn Automobile Company (1903-1936) was begun in 1875 as the Eckhart Carriage Company by Charles Eckhart of Auburn, Indiana. WWI forced the car maker to close its plant and Eckhart's sons later sold.

It wasn't until 1924 that Errett Lobban Cord, a successful car salesman, was approached to run the company. His response was to take over the entire company which he did, leaving his mark on automotive history. It is this period that our button belongs to. It is here that Cord partnered with Duesenberg Corrporation to launch a line of expensive luxury automobiles.

These vehicles displayed state of the art engineering and didn't skimp on visual appeal. They are arguably some of the most beautiful motor vehicles ever manufactured. Timing, though, was not on their side and the Depression contributed to the end of production in 1937. The products of this collaboration continue to be highly sought after due to their rarity, design and styling.

Grey background with gradient green graph lines. Illustration of a cartoon centipede at the top looking down at the text as if ready to pounce. The game logo CENTIPEDE is in dark green, "New and only from" in a red script, followed by the ATARI logo in orange.

Centipede was originally released by Atari in 1981 as an arcade game. Drop a quarter in and the centipede emerges at the top of the screen, scrolling down through a mushroom patch. The player manipulates a trackball controller and single button to fire at, and hopefully kill, the insect segment by segment before it reaches them at the bottom. Add some fleas, scorpions, spiders and catchy sound effects and that's Centipede.

Of the early video games, Centipede's design team was one of the few to include the rare female, software engineer Dona Bailey. She has later discussed gaming culture at the time, mostly a male industry, and how she ended up working on Centipede. Trying to avoid the overabundance of violent shoot-em-up games, she chose Centipede because although it included shooting, "it didn’t seem that bad to shoot a bug.”

Light green background with black text. Two black and white cartoon eyes look upward above the text.

Produced for Armstrong World Industries, makers of ceiling and flooring products based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The curious "Ceiling Watcher" was one of a series that Armstrong used in print and television during the 1960s. Subsequent themes were titled "Ceiling Doctor" and "Ceiling Master" - "Master craftsmen made a ceiling worth looking at."

Armstrong World Industries traces its roots to a $300 purchase in 1860 of a small cork-cutting shop in Pittsburgh by the 24 year old Thomas Morton Armstrong. He sold cork bottle-stoppers to the Union Army during the Civil War and gained a reputation for the quality of his product. Stamping his name on each cork, he became a pioneer in the use of branding to promote his business. From corks to cork boards to ceiling and flooring, the 150+ year old company has grown into a global leader.

Outer border of navy blue containing text circles an illustrated set of wings extending from the vertical letters "AMLA" that are centered on the brownish-gold background. 

The American Boy was a monthly magazine was published by The Sprague Publishing Company of Detroit, Michigan.  Featuring action stories that were appropriate for boys, the magazine ran from 1899 to 1941.