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Fait au Quebec, as seen on the curl text, translates to made in Quebec.

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Illustration of a character with long hair and smoking with black text on a yellow background

NYO stands for Northwest Youth Outreach the former name of a Chicago-area nonprofit that serves at-risk youth. Founded in 1959 by Reverend Stan Davis of Galewood United Church of Christ, the organization originally served only the Northwest Side of Chicago. Through a combination of community partnerships and public funding, Youth Outreach Services, as it's known today, soon expanded its services to youth throughout the Chicago area. Services today include drug treatment, violence prevention, child welfare, and juvenile justice.

White text with a blue illustration of a globe in the letter O on a red background

Slogans which promoted peace, love, and joy, rather than war were popular during the 1960s and the Vietnam War era.

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Fabric covered button with a woman's face and orange hair with a pink ribbon attached and brown fuzzy fabric on the black hat

Learn more about the History of Flapper Buttons on the Busy Beaver blog.

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Black and white photograph of a woman's head and shoulders, wearing a hat with flowers and a white high collared shirt

Photographic pinback buttons made with celluloid material were extremely popular from the late 1800s to the 1930s. It was during the 1860s that photography became more available on the commercial market. Humphrey E. Copley of Connecticut sought a patent in 1861 to incorporate photographs onto buttons by utilizing a metal rim to hold the photograph in place. This technology coincided with the Civil War and mourners embraced the option of being able to wear visual representations of their loved ones. John Wesley Hyatt was an American inventor who received a patent for a product named celluloid in 1870. After refinement of the initial product, Hyatt’s celluloid became the first commercially profitable synthetic material. United States patent records reflect the usage of celluloid in making buttons with photographs in the late 1880s. In 1893, Benjamin S. Whitehead acquired a patent for using celluloid over the photo to protect the image. The increased availability of photography coupled with the ability of manufacturers to produce buttons inexpensively allowed the public to create a fashion fad out of the desire to have portable keepsakes.

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Bipolar disorder, sometimes referred to as manic depression, is a mental disorder in which a person's emotions cycle gradually or rapidly between extreme states of being (generally mania or euphoria and depression). Different types of bipolar disorder are recognized based on the illness's presentation. These include Bipolar I, Bipolar II, and Mixed Bipolar. Each year, Bipolar disorder affects 2-3% of the U.S. population. There is no cure for Bipolar disorder, but it can generally be managed with psychotherapy and medication.

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The 'Ask Me' slogan is used by a variety of organizations to prompt their customers to seek assistance for their needs. Individuals donning the Ask Me button are generally seen as a resource for their affiliation and a guide to their patrons.

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In the summer of 1982, rumors spread that International Harvester was about to go bankrupt. The farming and construction equipment manufacturer responded to these reports with a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal assuring readers, "We're not giving in, we're going on". 

The phrase was actually the company's slogan for a corporate recovery campaign. The previous year, International Harvester (IH) had suffered a loss of nearly a billion dollars. The loss had forced IH to sell off almost a third of its manufacturing plants and to let go or transfer almost 8,000 employees. The recovery campaign was an effort to reassure investors and employees that the company was still viable.

The slogan and its shortened version ("We're going on") appeared in multiple newspaper ads and on pinback buttons and bumper stickers that were distributed to IH employees. In 1984 IH underwent further heavy losses and was forced to merge with J.I. Case. Two years later the reorganized company changed its name to Navistar International Corporation.