White stars on a blue background on with white text on the top third of the button; blue and red text on a red and white striped background on the bottom two-thirds. 

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White background with black text and white and black checkered edge.

Comic Motto Buttons, as they became known sometime in the 1940s (previously known as Comic Celluloid Buttons), hailed from Johnson Smith & Co. catalogues and became popular in the early to mid-20th century. Recognized by their iconic checkered border and featuring salacious slogans and witty banter, the catalogue promised, “Get acquainted – wear these comic celluloid buttons. Slip one or two of these buttons on your lapel and then wait for the wisecracks to begin. The girls get lots of fun out of them. At parties, you break the ice right from the start. Just give one of these to your guest, and it gives the party a flying start.”

Johnson Smith & Company began in Chicago, Illinois in 1914 as a mail-order novelty and gag gift supplier, settling in Racine, Wisconsin in 1926. Johnson Smith & Co. or Johnson Smith Company sold an array of toys including pinback buttons with suggestive slogans meant as ice breakers.

White Background with blue text and a red and white checkered edge.

Johnson Smith & Company began in Chicago, Illinois in 1914 as a mail-order novelty and gag gift supplier, settling in Racine, Wisconsin in 1926. Johnson Smith & Co. or Johnson Smith Company sold an array of toys including pinback buttons with suggestive slogans meant as ice breakers.

Comic Motto Buttons, as they became known sometime in the 1940s (previously known as Comic Celluloid Buttons), hailed from Johnson Smith & Co. catalogues and became popular in the early to mid-20th century. Recognized by their iconic checkered border and featuring salacious slogans and witty banter, the catalogue promised, “Get acquainted – wear these comic celluloid buttons. Slip one or two of these buttons on your lapel and then wait for the wisecracks to begin. The girls get lots of fun out of them. At parties, you break the ice right from the start. Just give one of these to your guest, and it gives the party a flying start.”

The phrase, “Oh honey give me some,” when worn on the lapel, likely had an effect much like that of a cat-call or a public invitation to onlookers, specifically women, to give the wearer a taste: a suggestive invitation implying a desire for physical intimacy.

Yellow background with an illustration of a blue, black, white, and yellow dog with blue text above and black text below.

The College of St. Scholastica opened in 1912 in Duluth, Minnesota, as an independent private college with only six students. Over 100 years later, with various locations across Minnesota, the school now boasts 4,000 students.

The St. Scholastica Athletics team name is the Saints. In 2022 the team branding was given an update, and the team mascot, “Storm,” a St. Bernard, was given a makeover. With his new look, Storm lost the cartoony image depicted on this button for one that shows more determination. “The new Storm communicates focus, grit and the underdog mentality,” according to the press release. 

Red background with large, white text and a number one bisected by the text.

Black text on white background with red and white checkered edge.

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,” sung by Wendell Hall in 1923. This “I’m No Angel” button may be a variation of this. It would certainly fit the carnival theme, seeing as Mae West starred in the movie I’m No Angel (1933) as a sharp and seductive circus performer for “Big Bill Barton’s Wonder Show” who falls in love with Jack Clayton, a character played by Cary Grant.

Aged white background with black illustration of a rooster, black text, and a red and aged white checkered edge.

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 “Cock-A-Doodling” button may be a variation of such buttons.

White backgroudn with black text around the rim and an illustration of a large trailer truck in the center

The Port of Oakland, California—the city's Port Authority—is an independent city department governed by commissioners nominated by the mayor and appointed by the city council. A primary self-funded department, its major operations are in aviation, real estate, maritime, and port utilities. In 1971, Leanord Sloane wrote for the New York Times that the Port of Oakland created The Shipping Machine, a "combination of the four major modes of transportation near the port" and placed the image featured on this button in trade journal advertisements. The Shipping Machine has the cab of a tractor-trailer, parts of a container ship, the tail of a jet liner, and the base of a locomotive. 

Colorized photograph of a pond surrounded by lush greenery; a man with a long beard wearing a suit and fedora stands in the middle ground, looking toward the camera

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Pink triangle over white text on black background.

Silence=Death is a symbol and slogan created in the 1980's by Avram Finkelstein, Brian Howard, Oliver Johnston, Charles Kreloff, Chris Lione, and Jorge Socarrás to raise awareness about the AIDS epidemic. The phrase was meant to criticize both the public stigma surrounding the disease as well as the Reagan administration's lack of response. The pink triangle was a symbol used by Nazis in the 1930's and 1940's to identify homosexuals, but by flipping it upside down, the creators of Silence=Death helped to reclaim the symbol for their community. The visual iconography was chosen to make the movement as inclusive as possible. As a result, the group of creators choose not to use photographs, but rather a more general symbol of a pink triangle.  

Silence=Death—and the upside down pink triangle—became a hugely impactful symbol, and eventually was adopted by the organization AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP). With its new symbol, ACT UP would go on to fight AIDS both in the U.S and around the world. As of 2024, ACT UP continues to advocate for the nearly 40 million people living with HIV and AIDS. 

Click here to see another version of this button held by the Museum