Photograph of Barack Obama with red, yellow, white, and blue text on black background.

As President Barack Obama prepared to deliver his Farewell Address on January 10, 2017, at McCormick Place in his hometown of Chicago, IL, thousands lined up for a chance to grab free tickets. Despite freezing temperatures, crowds were lined up as early as 4 a.m. on January 7th for a chance at tickets to be handed out at 8 a.m. Souvenir stands lined up with the crowds to offer farewell memorabilia such as limited edition items with phrases of ,“Farewell Mr. President,” and, “Best President Ever.”  While only about 2000 tickets were given out, the world was able to watch the farewell address via a 360-degree video filmed by an LA based company, VRScout. Obama’s farewell speech was the first presidential speech to be broadcast live in 360-degree video.

Center image is a shield with olympic rings and a US flag pattern containing white and blue text. Surrounding shield is upper text in blue and lower text in red, all on a white background.

The 1980 Summer Olympics was a very controversial event held in Moscow during the Cold War. These games were boycotted by 65 nations led by the United States under the direction of President Carter to protest the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. While this design could suggest the USA’s involvement, it might also reference the New Zealand team Kiwis based on their national icon the kiwi bird. New Zealand officially participated in the boycott of the 1980 Olympics; however, four of 99 competitors did compete as independents under the New Zealand Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association flag.

Black and white photograph of Abraham Lincoln encircled by white and blue text.

The American Political Items Collectors is a non-profit organization that promotes the collection and preservation of political artifacts. Since 1945, APIC members have collected political memorabilia including buttons, postcards, pennants, autographs, and more. Presidential campaigns often get the most attention, but as APIC member Bob Atwater notes, “we like presidential items, but a lot of collectors also collect local items… to us, each of these pieces is a piece of history.” In addition to promoting political history via their members, APIC partners with museums, archives, and presidential homes across the country to educate the public on the topic of political history.

In 2018, APIC held its 16th bi-annual convention in Springfield Illinois. At the convention, members of APIC gathered to display and share their collections with the public for free. Members also sell, trade, and appraise political artifacts with the public during conventions.

Red text forming a typography heart with an orange cause ribbon in the center. Black text below heart for sponsor, all on white background.

AIDS Walk New York is the largest single-day AIDS fundraising event in the world with the event continuing for the past 30 years, raising more than $144 million that has been used to combat HIV and AIDS. AIDS Walk New York is a 10k fundraising walk starting and ending in Central Park. This event benefits GMHC (Gay Men’s Health Crisis) and more than 40 tri-state area AIDS service organizations with the funds going to prevention, care, and advocacy programs for the thousands that are affected by the disease in the tri-state area.

The 2017 AIDS Walk New York, which took place on March 21, 2017, marked the first time Delta Air Lines served as the event’s presenting sponsor. Delta Air Lines has long been a supporter of the event, becoming a sponsor in 1997, and currently serves as the official airline of GMHC since 2005.

White illustration of man riding horse on dark blue circle in center with white text. Black text over yellow background on rest of button.

William “Buffalo Bill” Cody exemplifies the American West. He was born in 1846 and his storied past includes riding for the Pony Express at age 14 and fighting in the Civil War. Buffalo Bill was a legend in the West before starting his Wild West show, which traveled across the U.S and Europe through the 1880's and early 1900's. The show featured iconic Western figures, such as Annie Oakely and Sitting Bull. Buffalo Bill was famously spurned from the 1896 Chicago World's Fair so he set up his show outside the gates and lured the crowd as they exited the festivities. Many guests thought that it was part of the official fair. Cody was one of the few prominent men who gave equal treatment and wages to all of the workers in his show, including people of color, people of indigenous descent, and women. In the archives of the world's fair, one aristocrat wrote in his journal that it was surprising to see the, "cowboys and indians," playing cards together, which was an uncommon activity for the time.

At the turn of the century, Buffalo Bill was arguably one of the most famous and recognizable American men in the world and fan clubs spread across the U.S and Europe in support of his show. These Wild West Shows brought the American West to the Eastern U.S as well as transatlantic, allowing spectators a glimpse into the myth of the untamed West. The shows were popular through the first decade of the 20th century, but became unprofitable by 1910. The 1940’s saw a resurgence in this culture and through the 1950’s, TV shows such as Howdy Doody and a slew of Western movies capitalized on the myth of the American frontier, which Buffalo Bill promoted through his shows.

Center black illustration of bike with bombs in tires and no symbols surrounded by green text all on tan background.

Bikes Not Bombs was started in 1984 as the U.S.A. was backing the Contra military strikes in Nicaragua. The movement was a call for bikes to be sent instead of bombs. Bikes Not Bombs has a home-base in Boston, Massachusetts, and originally was sending refurbished bikes to Nicaragua to help individuals get to work. They eventually set up a shop to teach locals mechanical skills to maintain the bikes. Currently, they send bikes to international partners in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Though they can no longer ship bikes to Nicaragua due to high custom taxes, the core beliefs and reasons for sending bikes remains the same. The core values of Bikes not Bombs is to use to address root causes of inequality, violence, and oppression; support the self-empowerment of individuals and communities to achieve social change on many levels, act in solidarity with local and international partners, commit sustainable equitable consumption of resources, to be courageous and bold in the face of injustice, and to build upon the strength of those they partner with. In addition to international programs, Bikes Not Bombs also has local programs, such as a youth program that teaches teens about bike safety, teaches them technical skills required for fixing bikes, and allows those in the youth program to earn the bike they fix up.

Illustration of light blue stars and checkmark. White text over light blue and dark blue alternating stripes with black union bug at bottom.

“When We Vote We Win” is the slogan of Network NoVA, a Virginia based political organization focused on electing democrats and engaging women politically. Network NoVA holds an annual Women's Summit every year since 2017. The goal of the summit is to create grassroots support for democrats by bringing more women into the democratic process, both as voters and candidates. In 2018, the summits official logo was changed to blue and white. The 2018 Midterm elections also marked a record-breaking number of women elected to congress, with 127 women total serving in the 116th Congress of the United States of America.

Illustration of red power fist in lower right. Black and red text across button. All on white background.

The Internationalist Group is the American branch of the left-wing political organization, League For The Fourth International. The group's ideology is based in Trotskyism and their political goals are centered around the defense of the working class and immigrants. On May 1st, 2017, the Internationalist Group helped to organize some of the protests that were held in New York city for May Day. Their protests in particular were focused on defending the rights of migrants against what they viewed as anti-immigration policy by the new Trump presidential administration. Buttons were created to raise awareness for the protest and distributed via mail from their website. 

Black and white photograph of man with mustache wearing suit on blue background.

Mike Dunham is an avid button collector. This button was created for a retirement celebration at the American Political Items Collectors (APIC) conference. Buttons are often worn to mark significant events such as celebrations and conference meetups.

White text and illustration of skull with powder wig on black background.

Created by artist, Jennifer Daniel, Liberty was part of the Busy Beaver's Button-O-Matic Artist Series. Starting in 2002 and ending in 2017, the series was a collaborative effort between the Busy Beaver Button Co. and artists culminating in an annual collection of limited edition custom art buttons curated by different artists with different themes. Liberty comes from the 2009 series curated by Dustin Hostetler, which featured art centering around a theme of currency.