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Irvin Works was a steel processing plant located in West Mifflen, Pensylvania. Irvin Works, opened in 1938, was owned by U.S. Steel, otherwise known as Mon Valley Works. U.S. Steel was a renaming of other companies as they had merged. Carnegie Steel Company was created in 1872 and was a primary supplier of railroad rails and other steel products. Illinois Steel Company, founded in 1889, was a competitor that moved from the midwest to a western market, but returned to the east to acquisition as they grew. Illinois Steel purchased Carnegie Steel Company in 1901 and became U.S. Steel. Items created at the Irvin Works plant were used in appliance, automotive, metal building, and home construction industries.

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Advanced Digital Corporation was a technology company founded in 1980 in Huntington Beach, California. Specializing in S-100 microcomputers, they released only one complete system, the SUPER STARTM, in 1983. This new system, which featured greater expansion capabilities and support for multiple users, claims to be the first with a removable storage drive included as part of the standard package.

In 1983, S-100 systems as a whole were already becoming obsolete due to the popularity and success of the IBM-PC.

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Located in Michigan, Mackinac Island is an island resort town which covers 3.8 square miles in Lake Huron. It is well-known for these horse drawn carriage "tours" that are the main source of transportation for both tourists and residents of the small island. 

Mackinac Island Carriage Tours, Inc. was officially founded in 1948 by "the carriage men" -- those who had already been giving their own horse drawn carriage tours of the island since 1869. These men, led by their president, Thomas Chambers, successfully petitioned to ban cars from the island since they felt that motorized vehicles startled the horses. Since then, these carriage rides are the only way for tourists and residents to get around on the island, aside from bicycles. Their necessity to both visitors and natives has made the company the world's oldest "horse and buggy" service which currently offers approximately 100 carriages and over 400 horses to pull them with. 

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The Detroit Anarchistic Madness Negators (DAMN!) was a student organization at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. Committed to social action, it was a university-recognized group in 1980 and 1981. Detroit has a history of anarchism going back to the nineteenth century, when it was closely aligned with labor movements, though today it is chiefly associated with land use and collective farming.

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The Genesee Brewing Company, which was established in 1878, held a promotion for its light beer via the "Boo-ster" campaign during the Halloween season in 1991. Partnering with McCadam Distributing, the brewery’s mission was to raise money towards research for cystic fibrosis through both customer donations and portions of it's "Genny Light" beer sales. Vendors of the beer were given Halloween-themed displays and cards by McCadam Distributing to sell to customers for a minimum $1.00 donation which they could write their name on and have displayed on the walls of the bar or store where they made their contribution. These donations plus .10 from the sale of every case of Genny Light sold during the promotion were given to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation towards research while the beer’s retailers earned free t-shirts and a chance to win a Florida vacation.

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Amling’s was a Haunted House in Melrose Park, IL that started in the 1950s. It was thought to be the first of its kind in the U.S. and was priced at .25 cents a tour. The tour involved multiple scary scenarios, including a frightening gorilla who roared at people walking by. As the haunted house became hugely successful, the owners expanded, adding carnival rides. If visitors could make it all the way through the haunted house, they were awarded with an Amling’s Brave Heart Award button, like the one pictured.

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This button is from a studio tour of the NBC Chicago. NBC Chicago is located in the NBC Tower in the heart downtown Chicago. The tour offers visitors a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the world of television broadcasting and the various sound stages, greenrooms, production offices etc. The tour is available to the public and offers free tours for students.

Blue illustration of Chicago skyline made with musical instruments on a dark blue background with blue text

The Chicago Blues Festival is a free event held every June showcasing the top blues musicians in the industry. The festival started in 1984 to honor renowned blues musician Mckinley Morganfield who passed the year before. He was considered the “father of Chicago blues". WXRT radio station is one of the sponsors for the event and each year they design their own merchandise for the festival.  For the 2014 festival, they created the image on this button. It highlights a few of the important buildings in Chicago’s skyline with a musical twist. For example, the iconic Sears Tower in the middle of the button is made up of piano keys.

Blue and orange-red illustration of a bird over an orange-red banner with dark blue text on a blue background

The Chicago Blues Festival is a free event held every June showcasing the top blues musicians in the industry. The festival started in 1984 to honor renowned blues musician Mckinley Morganfield who passed the year before. He was considered the “father of Chicago blues". WXRT radio station is one of the sponsors for the event and each year they design their own merchandise for the festival. For the 2013 festival, they created the image on this button. It depicts an eagle which is the nations emblem, but if looked at closely, it also doubles as a guitar.

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The Chicago Reader began their Readers’ Poll in 2008 with the release of their "Best of Chicago" annual series. In 2010 it included five categories: Goods and Services, Food and Drink, Arts and Entertainment, Sports and Recreation, and Civics. Four categories consisted of somewhere between 20 and 40 polls of various businesses throughout Chicago; the fifth category, Civics had one poll asking who should run against Mayor Daley in 2011. The staff of the Chicago Reader also publish their top picks for various honorable mentions.