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The Chicago American was an afternoon newspaper founded in 1900 under the title "Hearst's Chicago American", which ran until 1974 when the rising popularity of TV ran it out of business.

In the 1930s the newspaper ran a series of buttons advertising the Saturday comics, featuring characters from popular strips including Betty Boop, Popeye, Buck Rogers, and Popeye's companion Wimpy, pictured here. J. Wellington Wimpy was one of the main characters in the Popeye comic strip, playing the "straight man" to Popeye and best known for his irresponsible financial decisions and love of hamburgers. E. C. Segar, creator of the strip based Wimpy on his first boss William Schuchert, manager of the Chester Opera House.

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Dan Dunn was a fictional detective created by Norman Marsh in the 1930s. The comic book Dan Dunn, Secret Operative 48 became a daily newspaper comic strip in 1933 and ran through 1943. "The Saturday Daily News" button set from the 1940s featured characters from their newspaper comic strips including Li'l Abner, Apple Mary, Mutt and Jeff, and Dan Dunn.

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The Textile Workers Union of America (TWUA) was founded in 1939 when the United Textile Workers of America (UTW) and the Textile Workers Organizing Committee (TWOC) merged. The TWUA campaigned for higher wages, safer working conditions, and better health insurance and benefits for textile workers working in southern America. They were a driving force behind Operation Dixie in 1946, a post-World War II campaign to unionize industry in the south that persisted until 1954, but was ultimately unsuccessful. TWUA officially dissolved in 1976, when they merged with the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America to form the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union (ACTWU).

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The South Shore Improvement Association was founded May 18, 1925, to oversee and improve the south shore beach of Lake Michigan and the South Shore Sub-division that boarders the beach in Lake County, Indiana. The beach offers swimming, sunning, boating, and hiking. The association maintains a children’s playground and park area.

White button with illustrations of red stitches like a baseball with red text on top and green text in the middle and an illustration of a box of cereal

In the 1930s, in order to compete with General Mills’ Wheaties endorsement of major league players, Kellogg’s had begun to offer baseball tips on their Corn Flakes cereal. The tips offered advice on techniques and positions written by former Major League player and manager Lew Fonseca. In 1937 Kellogg’s copyrighted the term Kellogg’s Baseball School, and Fonseca was listed as the director of the school program. Kellogg’s provided, "bats, balls, and catcher’s equipment, but all candidates for other positions [were] urged to bring their own gloves."

In 1937, Kellogg’s ran their first trial of the school in Chicago, and over 40,000 children participating over a ten-week period across various playgrounds in the city. 20,000 people attended the championship game. In 1938, the schools expanded to include other cities, and the instructor roster also expanded to include the likes of former managers and players such as Connie Mack, Jack Coombs, John Barker, and Ira Thomas. Although the schools only ran between 1937 and 1938, the promotional stunt proved to be very successful, as evident in its popularity and attendance.

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Carson Pirie Scott & Company was a popular department store around the turn of the turn of the century in Chicago, IL. Their flagship store was designed by the foremost authority on skyscraper construction, Louis Sullivan who wrote his treatise on skyscraper architecture in 1896 titled, “The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered.” He is credited with coining the idea, “form must ever follow function.” In 1909, the department store decorated their iconic store front in honor of President’s Day and Abraham Lincoln’s 100th birthday. The Carson Pirie Scott & Company store is now known as Carson’s and although they have moved to new locations, the original flagship store still stands in downtown Chicago as of 2020.

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Parisian Novelty Company got their start in Chicago, Illinois in 1898 making button making equipment, parts, and machinery. After several decades of serving North America as the leader in button making, Parisian Novelty Company was acquired by the Matchless Group in late 2008.

Clean up, paint up, light up community service parades were a campaign to advocate for environmental cleaning projects in neighborhoods and communities that were at risk for losing their aesthetic and attractive appeal to waste and pollution. Groups would meet to demonstrate with signs and clean up efforts as they walked in a parade like fashion through the communities cleaning as they went. The phrase "clean up, paint up, light up" exists in a few variations through the decades but the parades were popular in the mid 60s to mid 70s.

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John Purdue and Tippecanoe County donated land and money to establish Purdue University in 1869. Classes first began in 1874 with 6 instructors and 39 students. Purdue University is located in Lafayette, Indiana and is part of the Big Ten Conference for Division I collegiate sports. Purdue’s official colors are old gold and black. Their mascot is a boilermaker, which is a trained craftsman who creates steel fabrications.