Smiley face button with red text for eyes and nose and blue text under the mouth, which is filled with red, white and blue stripes. The hair is blue with white stars. 

"Meathead" refers to what Archie Bunker would call his son-in-law, Mike Stivic, on the popular television sitcom All in the Family. Archie was a grumpy World War II veteran and blue collar conservative who was known for his bigoted opinions and resistance to change. He was often at odds with his daughter, Gloria, and her liberal husband, Mike.

To tie into the 1972 election between Richard Nixon and George McGovern, All in the Family was promoted with election-themed merchandise. 

Color photograph of a young Bill and Hillary Clinton standing side-by-side on a street.  She is wearing sunglasses and he has long hair and a beard.

Hillary Clinton is a lawyer and politician. She was first lady from 1993-2001 when her husband Bill Clinton was the 42nd President. She also served as a New York Senator from 2001-2009 and Secretary of State from 2009-2013.  She campaigned for the democratic nomination for President in 2008 and 2016. In 2008 she conceded the nomination to Barack Obama, but in 2016 she won the nomination. This button is from Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. The photo is from when Bill Clinton and Hillary started dating while attending Yale Law School in the early 1970s.  

Black and white photograph of Cardinal Gibbons and Bishop Curley of Baltimore with the years 1834 1934 1921 and 1934 on it in white. 

A black and white image of Archie Bunker appears on a white button with blue stars and white lettering.  "Stifle Yourself!" is on a read background. 

Archie Bunker, played by Carroll O’Connor, is a character from the 1970s sitcom All in the Family. Archie was a grumpy WWII veteran and a blue-collar conservative who was known for his bigoted opinions and resistance to change. He was often at odds with his liberal son-in-law, Mike (aka Meathead), played by Rob Reiner, and tolerated by his long-suffering wife, Edith who was played by Jean Stapleton. “Stifle yourself” was a phrase frequently directed by Archie to Edith when he wanted her to stop talking.

To tie into the 1972 presidential election, All in the Family was promoted with election-themed merchandise.

Red button with white scalloped rim. White, red and blue text.

Trommer’s Malt Beer, founded in 1897, was brewed with 100% malted barley and hops, even in the war years when malted barley was expensive and scarce.  Their malt extract was sold in drug and specialty stores and was used for malted milk.  Trommer's Evergreen Brewery was founded in Brooklyn, N.Y., by German immigrant John F. Trommer. Unfortunately, John Trommer died a year later.  His eldest son, George, inherited the brewery and ran it until 1951. Trommer established a hotel, restaurant and beer garden in his brewery complex called the Maple Garden. Around the turn of the century, Brooklyn could boast housing 49 breweries. At the height of Prohibition in 1929, Trommer produced 300,000 barrels annually of their “near bear” which remained legal and was widely distributed.

Several strikes by workers and drivers led to the demise of the Trommer brand. The first was in 1948 and most crippling in 1949 when for 72 days the strikers who took over the plant did not care for the yeast strains and they died. Because the unique taste of beer brands depends on their developed strand of yeast for fermentation, Trommer had to attempt to re-create their strand, but with no success. In 1950 George Trommer sold the plant to another beer manufacturer, and the brand was eventually discontinued in 1962.

Red rimmed lenticular button with yellow background. One image is a checkered flag and the other is a burst that says "The Winner" over the phrase "Shipwreck We're Hot."

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White text on a navy blue background. 

Perfection Cigarettes were a brand of the tobacco manufacturer Allen & Ginter, which began in Richmond, Virginia, in 1865. They claimed to be the purest cigarette on the market with no additives. Allen & Ginter was one of four other manufacturers to merge and form the American Tobacco Company in 1890. The Perfection brand continued through the 1910s and used pinback buttons and trading cards as incentives to purchase their products. Perfection Cigarettes exclusively issued red or blue text-only buttons with popular phrases of the time such as, “Oh, You!”

White and red striped button with red and black text. In the field where it says "DEST CITY" somone has penciled in "PHL."

This is an unaccompanied minor button from US Airways. The buttons were used to identify and assist children who were traveling alone. They contained spaces to write in information about a connecting flight and the destination city. In this case, the child who wore this button was traveling to Philadelphia.

White button with red text and red illustration of shoe box reading "Town & Country Shoes" on the top of the box and "T8CS" on the side. 

Town and Country Shoe Company was an American manufacturer with offices and factories located in Missouri. The brand was popular in the 1960s and was known for their matching shoe and handbag sets. Town and Country Shoes went out of business in the 1980s, but the products are still popular today with vintage clothing collectors.

Red and rainbow text with the Ty logo on a white button. 

Beanie Babies are a line of stuffed animals made by Ty Warner Inc. in 1991. Each toy was stuffed with plastic pellets, which gave them more flexibility. In 1993, nine original Beanie Babies were launched, including a pig, a moose, and a platypus. By the mid-'90s, there was a national craze over Beanie Babies, and Ty intentionally produced limited quantities of the toys. As the toys were systematically retired, people began collecting and selling them; at the height of their popularity, some Beanies were flipped at 1000% on eBay.  Ty stopped producing the toys in 1999, but public pressure caused them to resume their production in 2000.