Election '72 Green Duck

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Text on Button ELECTION '72 from GREEN DUCK
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White background divided into sections: the top has a blue union bug, the middle has blue text with red starred banners above and below, the bottom has green text with a green circular outline

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The Green Duck Metal Stamping Company was founded by George G. Greenburg and Harvey Ducgheisel in 1906 in Chicago, Illinois. They initially provided metal stamped medals, tokens, badges, and even casino chips, but also specialized in pinback buttons, advertising signs, and key tags.

The tab-style button was a Green Duck promotional product for "Election '72"—the 47th United States presidential election. In that election, the Republican incumbent president Richard Nixon and vice president Spiro Agnew faced off against Democratic nominee George McGovern and his running mate Sargent Shriver. Nixon won the election in a landslide victory with about 60% of the popular vote and was elected for his second term. However, his term was cut short in 1974 when he was forced to resign before facing impeachment for the Watergate scandal. 

Sources

The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. (2023, July 14). United States presidential election of 1972. Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/event/United-States-presidential-election-of…;

Homren, W. (2010). Green [space] Duck was originally Greenduck Corporation. The E-Sylum, 13(50). Retrieved from: http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v13n50a16.html

Catalog ID PO1250

Book It Animals and Kids

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Text on Button Book It!®
Image Description

Illustrations of five child characters plus anthropomorphic bird, turtle, hippo, dog, and ant illustrations on a white, brown, blue, and yellow background with tan text on a brown background at the top. On top of the illustration are four star stickers plus one empty sticker spot

Curl Text © 1996 Pizza Hut Inc.
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Created to improve childhood literacy, Book It! is a popular reading program created by Pizza Hut that encourages children to read books for the promise of a free pizza. Beginning in 1984, Book It! runs every year from October to March through elementary schools with the reading goals being established by teachers for their students individually. 

Many of the Book It! buttons featured spots for stickers that readers could use to track their progress. Once they had enough stickers, they would receive a voucher for a free personal pizza from Pizza Hut. 

Catalog ID CA0899

Book It 14th Year

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Text on Button BOOK IT!® 14TH YEAR
Image Description

A white star design  in the foreground and bold, multi-colored text with thick black outlines on a blue wavy background fill the majority of the space. Additional small white text is in the top right corner. 

Curl Text © 1998 Pizza Hut Inc.
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BOOK IT! is a literacy outreach program hosted by Pizza Hut since 1984. The restaurant chain encourages pre-K through 6th-grade students to plan, reach, and record monthly reading goals. As a reward, each student receives one free one-topping pizza.

Sources

The book it! program. Home | The Pizza Hut BOOK IT! Program. (n.d.). https://www.bookitprogram.com/

Catalog ID CA0898

Let's Be Fiends

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Text on Button let's be fiends! it's Halloween!!
Image Description

Two illustrated green monsters—one pushing the other down so only its eyes and nose are visible—in the center on an orange background with black text around them. A white speech bubble with black text is on the left directed towards the bigger monster.

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HI [logo] BROWS® American Greetings® 98H 9973-49 [price tag: 1.00]

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Hi Brows was a line of greeting cards produced by American Greetings starting in 1956. The irreverent and off-kilter art style and sense of humor was intended to appeal to the growing counter culture in America. A small number of buttons were also produced for the line, including this one.   

Sources

David, H. (2016, January 3). American Greetings HI BROWS Logo. Flickr. com. https://www.flickr.com/photos/14696209@N02/23525961693

Pederson, J. P., & Grant, T. (2004). International directory of company histories, 59, 34-39. 

Catalog ID IB0828

Lincoln Patriots

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Text on Button LINCOLN PATRIOTS
Image Description

Blue background with red text on top of white vertical and horizontal lines that cross each other in the lower right quadrant. An illustration of a typical 18th century American Patriot holding a flag that reads "LHS" sits Lincoln Patriots Back in the upper left quadrant on the white horizontal line. 

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[price tag] 4-236 $2.00

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Lincoln High School was built in 1965 in the southeast area of Sioux Falls, S.D. Until this time, there had been one high school in the district, Washington High School. However, residential neighborhoods in the southeast part of the city were growing and Washington High became overcrowded. Lincoln High School opened its doors to 1300 students in October of 1965. As of 2023, Lincoln’s student enrollment is 1,833 and has been included on the list of top 1200 public schools in the US. Lincoln offers a variety of extracurricular activities including Speech, JrROTC, DECA, sports, and marching band. The Lincoln High School Patriots Marching Band has performed in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, the Rose Parade, has earned a spot as finalists at the Bands of America Super Regional in St. Louis, and was the first band from S.D. to win first prize at the BOA Iowa Regional. 

Sources

Neisteadt, S. (2007, April 19). Patriots Are Parade Bound. News, weather and sports for Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa. https://web.archive.org/web/20070423025321/http://www.keloland.com/News…;

Renshaw, E. (2016, January 7). Looking back: Lincoln High School. Argus Leader. https://www.argusleader.com/story/life/2016/01/07/looking-back-lincoln-…;

Valentine, D. (2022, November 16). LHS marching band’s record-breaking season. Lincoln High School Statesman. https://lhsstatesman.com/2022/11/lhs-marching-bands-record-breaking-sea…;

Catalog ID SC0067

Eurythmics

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Text on Button eURYTHMICs
Image Description

White background with black text in the upper right-hand corner and a color photograph filling the foreground of Annie Lennox with her arms raised up, bent at the elbow and hands making fists

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Eurythmics was a UK-based synth pop duo that consisted of singer Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart. The image on this button is from the band's third studio album, Touch, which was released in 1983 to critical acclaim.  

Sources

“This Is What the Future Sounded Like, PopMatters.” PopMatters, 5 Dec. 2005, www.popmatters.com/051205-eurythmics-2496104064.html. Accessed 26 June 2023.

Catalog ID MU0573

Michael Jackson Thriller Alternate Version

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Text on Button Michael Jackson thriller
Image Description

Black background with photograph of Michael Jackson wearing a white suit with a black shirt on the right and white cursive text on the left 

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In 1982, Michael Jackson released his sixth studio album and his best-selling album of all time, Thriller. The iconic photoshoot that accompanied the Thriller album cover features Jackson reclining casually in a white suit. The suit belonged to the credited photographer: Dick Zimmerman. Not visible is the full display of Jackson which features a tiger playfully balancing on his leg. According to Zimmerman, Jackson was afraid that the tiger would scratch his face.

Click on this link to see an additional variation of this button also held by the Button Museum.

Sources

Marino, T. (2019). The world’s best selling album truly was a thriller. Pure Music Manufacturing. Retrieved from https://pure-music.co.uk/thriller-album-cover/

Catalog ID MU0572

Dinosaurs Dude-asaurus

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Text on Button Dude-asaurus
Image Description

Lime green and orange background, patterned and outlined to appear three-dimensional. The character Robbie from the television show Dinosaurs is centered in the foreground, and a yellow banner with black and orange text runs across the bottom.  

Curl Text © DISNEY OSP PUBLISHING, INC.
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Dinosaurs was an American comedy series that aired from 1991 to 1994. The show was the brainchild of Jim Henson and followed a family of dinosaurs, the Sinclairs (named after the fossil fuel corporation).

Robbie Sinclair is the teenage son of the family. He is a typical teenage dinosaur boy, prone to rebellion and chasing after girls, but is overall caring and dependable.

Sources

Robbie Sinclair. Muppet Wiki. (n.d.-c). https://muppet.fandom.com/wiki/Robbie_Sinclair

Dinosaurs. Muppet Wiki. (n.d.). https://muppet.fandom.com/wiki/Dinosaurs

Cerone, D. (1991, November 17). Television : Primal secrets from the World of ’Dinosaurs’ : Disney reveals both the Wizardry and the Wizards behind the prehistoric stars of a prime-time sitcom. Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-11-17-ca-492-story.html

Catalog ID EN0646

Finley

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Text on Button Finley
Image Description

Yellow text on a brown background

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Morgan M. Finley was a Democrat politician in Chicago, born on August 31, 1925 and active from 1959 to 1989. He served in the Illinois Senate from 1959 to 1967. In 1971, Finley was appointed to Chicago’s Zoning Board of Appeals. In late 1974, he was appointed clerk of the Cook County Circuit Court, amid charges of conspiracy, tax eviction and accepting payoffs by his predecessor. Unfortunately for Finley, he got caught in 1989 accepting bribe money offered by federal “moles” in the Operation Incubator sting. He was sentenced to ten years and only served less than four. Judge Ilana D. Rovner called him “a monument to corruption.”  He was released in 1993 and died in 2016, away from politics. 

Sources

Steinberg, N. (2016, September 22). Politician Morgan Finley, ‘a monument to corruption,’ has died. Chicago Sun-Times. https://chicago.suntimes.com/2016/9/22/18364946/politician-morgan-finley-a-monument-to-corruption-has-died 

Judge Sentences Finley to 19 Years, Call Him Corrupt. (1989, August 26; Updated 2021, August 8). Chicago Tribune. https://www.chicagotribune.com/1989/08/26/judge-sentences-finley-to-10-years-calls-him-corrupt/ 

Catalog ID PO1249