White background with an illustration of the heads of the four members of the Monkees surrounding a black Monkees text logo with black text above and below 

The Monkees was the name of a band created for a TV show by the same name in 1966. The band was comprised of Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith, and Peter Tork. The show ran on NBC from 1966-1968, but the pop rock band gained real popularity, with hit songs such as “I’m a Believer.” The television program won two Emmys in its first year and the group had four albums hit the Billboard chart in one year. In the 1980s, the group toured and made special appearances around the country; in 1996, they released a reunion album. In the years after the death of Jones and Took, Nesmith and Dolenz went on tour as the Monkees once more in 2021.  

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The Monkees was a band created for a TV show by the same name in 1966. The band members included Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Michael Nesmith, and Peter Tork. The Monkees show ran on NBC from 1966-1968, but the pop rock band gained real world popularity, with hit songs such as “I’m a Believer.” In the 1980s the group would go on tours and special appearances, and they put out a 1996 reunion album. The television program won two Emmys in its first year and the group had four albums hit the Billboard chart in one year. In the years after the death of Jones and Took, Nesmith and Dolenz went on tour as The Monkees once more in 2021. 

Illustration of a rooster with a red comb on a blue background surrounded by red text on a white background 

Composed of “choice grains and seeds,” Red Comb Poultry Feed was advertised in 1910 as being, “a carefully balanced ration for Chicks from the ‘Cradle to the Grav-y’.” The Edwards and Loomis Company, manufacturers of Red Comb Poultry Feed and Red Horns Dairy Feeds, kept an office in Chicago. 

This button was found in the walls of a house in Chicago built in 1905. Was the button received as a promotional item, dropped, and lost in the house in the early 1900s? How did it get there? The mystery may never be solved…

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William E. Rodriguez was a lawyer and politician from Illinois. Born in Naperville, Illinois in 1879, Rodriguez became active in Chicago politics following his graduation from high school, and joining the Socialist Party of America, in the early 1910s. Rodriguez became the first Hispanic alderman in Chicago after his 1914 election for Chicago city council and was reelected in 1916. He remained active in Chicago politics until his death in 1970. 

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Born in 1941, Ernest Evans, better known by his stage name Chubby Checker is a singer, songwriter, and actor. He was given the nickname Chubby Checker by Barbara Clark—the wife of television and radio personality Dick Clark—and played homage to another famous singer, Fats Domino. Checker is credited with inventing the dance craze The Twist after his version of the 1959 Hank Ballard song was released in the 1960’s. The song popularized a new style of couples dancing that continues to be influential to this day. The Twist became a chart-toping hit and the was followed up the next summer with a successful sequel Let's Twist Again; most of Checker’s early work featured some play on his first hit. Checker is credited with seven top ten hits on The Billboard Top 100 including Pony Time and Limbo Rock. As of 2024, Chubby Checker still actively tours and performs around the United States. 

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Resentment transpired towards United States involvement in the Vietnam War when the U.S. conducted its first draft lottery since World War II. The draft became a driving force for protests across the country as it compared the drafting age to legal drinking and voting ages. Men were drafted to war as young as eighteen, meanwhile, the legal voting and drinking age was 21. Protestors criticized the fact that 18 to 21-year-old men were old enough to fight and die for their country yet not old enough to vote or drink in it.  

The slogan “old enough to fight, old enough to vote” became popular during the Vietnam War era and was used similarly in the argument to lower the legal drinking age. In 1971, the 26th Amendment lowered the legal voting age from 21 to 18. Around the same time, 29 states lowered their legal drinking age to anywhere between 18 and 20. However, the National Minimum Drinking Age Act was passed in 1984 and forced states to raise the legal drinking age to 21, or they would lose integral federal highway funding. The argument of being able to fight and die in war but not being able to drink continues to persist well into the 21 century.

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Vic Firth, a percussionist in the Boston Symphony Orchestra, was unhappy with the quality of sticks available to him in the early 1960s. He began to craft his own drumsticks to suit his needs, by whittling wood or using a wood turner. Word spread, and the craft shop that he started in his garage has grown into a company with over 200 varieties of drumsticks to suit an individual percussionists’ needs.

Blue litho photograph of Len Small in the center on a white background surrounded by white text on a red rim on the top and a blue rim on the bottom

Jim Ridings, author of Len Small: Governors and Gangsters, states in the summary of his book that Lennington “Len” Small was the “most corrupt politician in Illinois history.” Ridings’ work is the only book on Small, the 26th governor of Illinois (1921-1929). Six months after becoming governor, Small was accused of embezzling state funds while he was the Illinois Treasurer from 1905 to 1907. There has been reason to believe that Small was in business with famed American gangster Al Capone, as Capone may have played a part in jury tampering during Small’s embezzlement trial. Small was acquitted, though eight of the jurors were suspiciously given state positions following the end of the trial. Throughout his time as governor, Small pardoned over 1,000 convicted felons and several members of the Communist Labor Party of America. Small was re-elected for a second term as governor with help from the Ku Klux Klan after allowing them to hold rallies on state fairgrounds. In 1928, Small lost the Republican primary for governor; he died in 1936. 

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Memorial Day is a federal holiday recognized in the United States on the last Monday of May since 1868. It's a day to honor those in the military who have died in the line of duty. One way to express thankfulness and respect is by placing flowers or flags on their gravestones and remembering the past wars in which they fought. The dates on this button are significant: In 1861 a confederate nation was formed in the United States setting off the Civil War. The Spanish-American lasted several months in 1898. And in 1917, the United States joined as allies in World War I.