Color illustration of an Amtrak train on a light blue background with white text above and below

The Turbo or Turboliner was the name of a train offered by Amtrak in the 1970’s. The slogan “Ride the Turbo” as seen on this button was a promotional saying used by Amtrak. The first Turboliners in the United States were French built and called RTL’s. The trains could pick up speed to 170 miles per hour. The Turbo, a gas powered train, was eventually taken off the tracks in 1981 due to its high cost to run. 

Black text on a silver-gray background with an illustration of mustachioed man in a beret on the right a pattern of horizontal lines around the top and left sides. 

Le Pac (short for local Public Access Catalog) was a library catalog product developed by the Brodart Company. Le Pac allowed users to perform complex searches of up to a million MARC records. Earlier versions of Le Pac contained its database on CD-ROM, while later versions could be accessed by CD or through the internet.

Black text on a bright green background

“Ssshhicago” was an official nickname given to the 1971 Chicago Noise Ordinance, a piece of legislation intended to reduce noise pollution in the city. The law was primarily directed at curbing noise from motor vehicles and factories, although investigations were made into complaints of noise from a wide variety of sources, including air conditioners, church bells, lawn mowers, and musical instruments to name a few.

Black text on a yellow background

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Black text on a white background with a stylized gold cougar on a green background in the center

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Black text above an illustration of a black bat on a white background with a red rim

While humorous, this button isn’t fully grounded in scientific fact. The myth of bats being blind is an inaccurate as is the idea that goldfish have three-second memories. Contrary to popular belief, most bats do use their eyesight alongside echolocation during flight. And fruit bats don’t use echolocation at all! Instead, they rely fully on their vision and sense of smell to find fruit. In fact, bats are thought to have better eyesight than most humans!

All this to say: bats get a bad rap, and not all expressions humans use are accurate!

Red rim and blue text on top of an illustration of blue water and a dark blue tunnel with red text on a white background in the center of the tunnel

In the 1940s, a series of risqué pinback buttons became infamous as gumball machine and carnival prizes. These small novelties boasted bold, comic-style lettering and cheeky illustrations, often framed by red or blue borders. Their humor relied on double entendres and mild innuendo, pushing the era's boundaries of decency while remaining tame by today's standards. 

"Pardon Me! Haven't We Met?" captures the Tunnel of Love's risqué reputation in pinback form. These 1940s-50s carnival and gumball machine prizes thrived on delivering sly winks about the ride's notorious dark corners where strangers sometimes became acquainted. The button's faux-innocent question packaged adult humor for teenagers palming coins, making it the perfect pocket-sized rebellion. Similar to the popular carnival barkers of the time, these buttons said the quiet part out loud, with just enough plausible deniability to keep them spinning in gumball machines everywhere.

Illustration of a white zeppelin and seafoam green clouds on a dark blue background with red text on the bottom of the button

Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin (1838-1917)—inventor of the Zeppelin, known colloquially as “Zeps”—flew his first airship, LZ 1, in 1900. Originally a German general, Zeppelin revolutionized air travel in the early 20th century. Zeppelin’s airships were originally for civilian use, and the first commercial passenger service was established in 1908. Passengers sat in gondolas hung underneath the hydrogen filled balloons of the airships, where they could witness beautiful views. The German armed forces, however, used zeppelins throughout WWI, each with the capacity to store up to two tons of bombs. Certainly, this provided a different kind of “view” which is explored here; this button features a Zeppelin flying amongst green clouds, which may serve as a symbol of war chemicals and bombings. 

By the end of WWI, Zeppelin military use had fallen out of favor due to the airships’ vulnerability to airstrikes and explosives; upon impact with the hydrogen-filled balloons, the airships would catch fire and crash. The most famous example of this can be seen with the Hindenburg disaster on May 6th, 1937, a Zeppelin which caught fire and crashed in New Jersey, killing 26 people.

Illustration of a black punk-style leather jacket on a yellow background

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Black text on a white background surrounding an illustration of a yellow half-circle sun with mutli-colored Crayola crayons interspersed with the yellow illustrated sun rays

The Crayola Drawing Club was operated by Binney & Smith Co., known today as Crayola LLC, and held periodic drawing contests which children were encouraged to enter. Membership to the club required sending in a specific flap from the packaging of a Crayola product as proof of purchase. In exchange, children would receive a membership certificate and a pin like this one. Prizes for winning drawings included crayola products, seasonal items, or cash prizes.