Red and black text on a yellow background.

In 1926, MacFarlane’s Candy Co., then known as MacFarlane’s Nut Co., opened their doors in Oakland, California. Founded by Donald Lee MacFarlane, who also went by the moniker “Awful Fresh”, it soon became a staple of the region and moved to a new location on Market Square in 1936, expanding to eighteen stores by the 1960s. Operating under the slogan “MacFarlane candy is gooder,” the company sold a wide variety of nuts, chocolates, and other sweets. They also sponsored a bagpipe band that performed for several decades. Riviana Foods acquired the company in 1971.

Yellow background with red and black text around an illustration of a gray mouse with large ears, a bow tied on its tail, and a red heart on its chest next to three illustrated flowers

The Girl Scouts of America is an organization for young girls in the United States. It was founded in 1912 by Juliette Gordon Low. The purpose of the organization is to empower girls and young women to become courageous, compassionate, and confident leaders of the future as well as involved American citizens. Girl Scouts participate in educational activities, such as learning first aid, camping trips, and community service. They earn badges for the accomplishment of certain tasks and acquisition of particular skills.

Click here and here to see other versions of Girl Scouts Superstar buttons.

White background with an illustration of white and brown hands embracing, brown text, and an image of a brown headstone with white text in the image.

"Jim Crow" was the name given to a group of racial segregation laws, primarily enforced in southern and border states of America between approximately 1865 (immediately after the ratification of the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery) and 1965. The name is derived from a fictional blackface minstrel character portrayed by Thomas Dartmouth Rice in the early 1830s. Rice mocked a physically disabled African slave and the name came to equate a pejorative for African-Americans. When the strict anti-black laws took the same name, it legally named Black Americans as second-class citizens. Both formal and informal segregation policies were also in place across other areas of the country. 

Black codes were state and local laws that specified how, where, when, and for what compensation formerly enslaved people could work and live. This created a form of indentured servitude for Black citizens. These laws eliminated Black citizens' voting rights, controlled their living and travel parameters, forbade interracial marriage, put many lives in danger, and led to violence and murder. Jim Crow dictated an entire way of life, as the laws mandated segregation in schools, parks, libraries, drinking fountains, restrooms, transportation, restaurants, and other public spaces. Many former Confederate soldiers worked as police and judges in Jim Crow areas, which kept Black codes in rigid enforcement. Incarcerated people were treated similarly to enslaved people in labor camps, and Black citizens received longer sentences and had to complete physically demanding work. 

Beige background with red text and a large red asterisk in the middle.

The TV series M*A*S*H was a popular comedy-drama series about army medics in the Korean War that ran from 1972-1983. It was known for its theme music, its well-developed characters, and for reflecting the nation’s evolving feelings about the Vietnam War. In the 1980s it inspired a novelty beer, brewed by Falstaff Brewing Corporation, and packaged in a camouflage can. Though the can promised “Premium Quality”, reviews by people currently determined to taste the 40-year-old and no-longer-produced beer range from “Ugggghhhh...” to “honestly i’ve had worse beer that was freshly canned” to “Another from the archive. Best one so far! Good carbonation.”

Yellow background with a black and yellow illustration of an animal wearing a hat and bowtie and black and yellow bubble text on and under the illustration.

Derby Days is an annual fundraising event hosted by the Sigma Chi fraternity at the University of Illinois. It is the organizations biggest and most successful philanthropy event of the year. Derby Days provides an opportunity for fraternities and sororities to give back to the community by selling merchandise, participating in competitions, and hosting blood drives to raise money for charities.

This particular Derby Days event took place in 1984 at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Gamma Phi Beta Sorority and Chi Epsilon Fraternity were recognized as participants in this fundraiser. Chi Epsilon, founded in 1922 at the University of Illinois, is the civil and environmental engineering honor society. Gamma Phi Beta, established in 1874 at Syracuse University, is a social sorority with a focus on community service.

Red background with two blue lines and blue text

Black background with a pink image of a woman's head in the middle with pink text below the image.

Please contact us if you have more information.

White background with black text in the center, surrounded by a black ring with white text and smaller black text on the top and bottom edges.

On May 21, 2003, the World Health Organization adopted the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) treaty. The FCTC marked the first time the World Health Organization used its international legal powers to get countries to address the devastating effects and consequences of tobacco. The treaty went into effect in February, 2005 with standards to decrease worldwide tobacco use. The FCTC encourages countries to be even stricter than the treaty outlines by suggesting reducing supply and demand for tobacco, protecting people from tobacco exposure, regulating the contents of tobacco products, and holding the tobacco industry criminally and civilly liable. 

With no regard for the treaty, the tobacco industry has continued to interfere with public health policymaking to make up for decreased profits. The Network for Accountability of Tobacco Transnationals (NATT) commits to keeping the tobacco industry out of public health policies across the world in order to protect countries from further harm.

yellowed background with black text and red and yellowed checkered edge.

In 1937, Irving Caesar published a collection of children’s songs on safety. Called Sing a Song of Safety, Caesar wrote such songs with the intention that they be used in classrooms across the country. Children learned myriad safety precautions, from never crossing the street without looking, to listening to their parents, to never playing with matches, and more.

In the 1940s, carnivals gave out checkered pin-back buttons as game prizes and souvenirs, many of which had funny phrases like “You’re the One” and “Jeepers Creepers” and also included titles of famous songs of the day, like “It Ain’t Gonna Rain No ‘Mo.” This “Safety First” button may be a variation of such buttons.