Illustration of balding man with mustache wearing a black tie and nondescript brown clothes.  Black and red text on a white background.

Sidney Harris is a cartoonist whose works have appeared in numerous magazines, including The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, and also National Lampoon Magazine. Harris's work often deals with topics related to science, technology, and mathematics. The strip depicted on this button comes from a comic strip titled Of the People, which dealt primarily with political humor. S. Harris's continues to work. with his cartoons appearing in magazines, books, and other outlets.

Illustration of green frog sitting in a wagon holding a antique clothes irons in each hand.  Green text on a white background.

S. Gross is an American cartoonist who specializes in single-panel cartoons. Throughout his lucrative career, his work has appeared in numerous magazines, such as Esquire, The New Yorker, as well as National Lampoon. One of Gross's most famous works was a cartoon that appeared in the December 1970 issue of National Lampoon. The comic, which is known as Frog Legs, depicts a couple at a restaurant where on the wall is a sign next to the kitchen door that reads "TRY OUR FROG LEGS." The couple is depicted as staring down at a frog who appears inside a wagon and is missing both of his legs. Noted for its dark humor, the cartoon remains one of Gross's most recognized works.

Illustration of two men wearing black suits, white shirts and neckties standing against a white background.

Written by Charles Rodrigues for National Lampoon Magazine, The Aesop Brothers: Siamese Twins ran for years during the magazines run. The comic strip stars conjoined twin brothers, George and Alex, whose antics proved popular to readers. Rodrigues used the brothers status as conjoined to provide much of the books humor. Rodrigues used the physical limitations of George and Alex to discuss topics such as sex, intimacy, and privacy. 

Illustration of a woman's face with white hair, red triangular earring, pearl necklace and cat's eye glasses.  Black and red text on a white background.

M.K. Brown is a cartoonist whose work was regularly featured in the American humor magazine, National Lampoon. One of her most popular contributions to the magazine was his comic strip titled "Aunt Mary's Kitchen." The strip ran from the early 1970s into the 1980s and featured the character of Aunt Mary, an older woman who gave recipe advice and spoke directly to the audience on how to cook a variety of different dishes. Over time the comic would change its focus from cooking recipes and instead developed a subplot where aliens invade the earth. The character proved popular enough that in 1983 a cookbook featuring the character was published and featured over one hundred and forty different recipes. Besides Aunt Mary, M.K. Brown had numerous works that were featured in the magazine throughout her time with National Lampoon between 1972 and 1981. In its early years, National Lampoon was hailed as a critically acclaimed magazine that helped shape American comedy and humor in the late 20th century. By the late 1980s, the magazine saw a decline in readership and began cutting back to publishing only one magazine per year in its final three years. The magazines final publication was released in November 1998.

Illustration of person standing in profile with white hair and a bandanna covering their mouth against an illustrated background of wood planks.  Orange and black text.
 

Gahan Wilson is an American author, illustrator, and cartoonist whose cartoons are often drawn in a humorously grotesque manner that is coupled with dark sense of humor. One of his most famous comic strips is Nuts, which appeared throughout the 1970s in National Lampoon Magazine. The strip follows the life of The Kid, an unnamed child who navigates childhood while coming to see the world as a strange, unfair, yet also fun place to inhabit. Wiltons inspiration behind the comic was to depict the complexity of childhood in an accurate and thought-provoking way.

Illustration of smiling person wearing brown overcoat and deerstalker-style hat waving to viewer.  Orange and black text on a white background.

B.K. Taylor is an American cartoonist, writer, and illustrator who is well known for his work in National Lampoon Magazine. Taylor worked for the magazine from 1975-1987, working on numerous strips, such as The Appletons, Stories from Uncle Kunta, and Timberland Tales. The character on this button is named Maurice The Indian Boy, also called The Joker by some. Featured as one of the main characters in Timberland Tales, which first appeared in October 1976. Maurice is described as a naive and humorous teenager who appeared frequently during the comic strips run in the magazine.

Illustration of a box with a red check mark with green text on a yellow background.

Bennigan's Irish American Grill & Tavern began in Atlanta, Georgia in 1976 as a mid-range casual dining restaurant serving Irish American cuisine. Following a 2011 organizational and marketing restructure, they rebranded to simply Bennigan's and focused on a high quality service and bar fare. These buttons were likely worn by waiters and bartenders in the original restaurants to advertise that they would ask for proper identification to patrons interested in purchasing alcoholic beverages. 

Black text on an orange background.

Leslie Tobin ran a shop in the 1960s in Philadelphia called "The Apparatus". The sold incense, jewelry, buttons, posters, and other hippie ephemera. The shop faced legal troubles in 1969 when it was raided several times by the Morals Squad of the Philadelphia Police Department due to complaints about obscene items—including buttons like this. No charges were filed, as buttons are a form of protected free speech. As Tobin stated in court, the buttons "were a social comment on the mores and hypocrisy of our society." In our judgment, 'Stop Vietnam' is as much speech on a button as it is in a newspaper, book or movie."

Red text inside an illustration of the state of Oregon in white with a red background.

Oregon is a U.S. state in the Pacific Northwest, which has a particularly unique history. It was inhabited by Paleo-Americans over 15,000 years ago, and has since been home to many Native American nations. Spanish explorers first sailed up the coast in the late 1500s, and Lewis and Clark made their famous expedition to the area in the 1800s. This sparked the Oregon Trail with many settlers moving West. Oregon’s admission to the Union has shaky beginnings. It was against slavery, but did not allow black people into its territory. Although Congress reluctantly admitted Oregon into the Union as a free state in 1859, its black exclusion laws were not fully repealed until the 1920s. 

However, today Oregon is a bastion of freedom and equality, being among the first states to legalize gay marriage, physician-assisted suicide, and recreational marijuana.

White and green text with a white circle in the middle of the button on a blue background.

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