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Wendell Willkie was the Republican presidential candidate who ran against Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1940. His campaign produced millions of buttons in response to items in the news about Roosevelt in an attempt to gain name recognition. 

Willkie was a lawyer from New York, who campaigned on issues such as international relations, which addressed the United States role in World War II.  He lost the election to Roosevelt, who had won 85% of the electoral college.  As a result, Roosevelt would go on to become the first president to be in office three terms, before the 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1951, would limit a president's time in office to two terms.

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This button mocks Richard M. Nixon's previous losing campaigns for U.S. president and California governor. Nixon had served as U.S. senator from California (1950-53) and as vice president under Dwight Eisenhower (1953-61). Yet he lost his campaign for president to John F. Kennedy in 1960, and the race for California governor to Pat Brown in 1962, making some think his political career was finished. Nixon won the 1968 election and was re-elected in 1972, resigning in the wake of the Watergate scandal in 1974.

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This button was released during the 1940 presidential election by Wendell Willkie, the Republican candidate, against standing president Franklin Roosevelt who was running for a third time. Willkie, an Indiana business man with no previous experience in office, was popular in the Midwest and Northeast for his platform of siding with the allies but not actively joining the war. However, many felt that with the threat of Nazi Germany in Europe, the best candidate was Roosevelt, who had two terms worth of experience in office. Franklin Roosevelt won the election, becoming the first president to be elected to three terms, and successfully led the United States through World War Two.

United States Presidential Election, 1940. (n.d.). Retrieved September 26, 2015 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1940

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Franklin D. Roosevelt had served two terms as President of the United States before becoming the first President to seek a third term.  It had not yet been amended in the Constitution to have a two term limit for the President.  The 1940 Presidential election saw Roosevelt run as the incumbent against Republican nominee Wendell Willkie, who campaigned against Roosevelt serving a third term.  Roosevelt won the election becoming the first President to serve three terms.  The 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1951 would limit the President's time in office to two terms.    

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John F. Kennedy ran for President of the United States in 1960 as the Democratic candidate.  His opponent was the Republican nominee, Richard Nixon.  This was the first election that both states Alaska and Hawaii could participate in since they had become states in 1959.  This election marked the first time a candidate (Richard Nixon) lost despite carrying the popular vote.  Kennedy won the electoral college by a vote of 303 to 219.  

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During the 1948 presidential election, standing president Harry Truman used the phrase “I'm Just Wild About Harry” as one of his campaign slogans. The slogan, which came from a song by the same title by Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake and was also used as his campaign song, was featured on buttons, pins, and banners across the country. The election's outcome was one of the most shocking in history. Most believed that Truman's opposition, Republican Thomas Dewey, would win the election because of his debating skills and his choice to stay quiet on controversial issues. Yet Truman's aggressive campaign won the election, earning him a second term in office.

United States Presidential Election, 1948. (n.d.). Retrieved September 26, 2015 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1948#The_fall_campaign

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Wendell Willkie ran as the Republican candidate in the 1940 United States Presidential election against two term incumbent, Franklin D. Roosevelt.  Willkie was a lawyer from New York, who campaigned on issues such as international relations, which addressed the United States role in World War II.  He lost the election to Roosevelt, who had won 85% of the electoral college.  As a result, Roosevelt would go on to become the first president to be in office three terms, before the 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1951, would limit a president's time in office to two terms.

Button shows a lithograph of a white dog wearing a brown collar with gold lettering and studs over an orange background, surrounded by a yellow circle with black lettering at the bottom and an ornate gold circle.

In 1821, John Cooper and Thomas Gould established a brewery in the Charlestown neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, the city's first..  When William Van Nostrand acquired interest in 1860, he gradually expanded production and distribution.  His son, Alonzo G. Van Nostrand, joined his father's brewery in 1872 and originated the “P.B. Ale” (Purest and Best) brand in 1879.  In the 1890s, Alonzo became the sole proprietor of the brewery, which was now known as the Bunker Hill Brewery.  It operated until Prohibition.  In addition to P.B. Ale, the brewery also manufactured; Boston Club Lager, Bunker Hill Lager, Old Musty Ale, Owl Musty and Van Nostrand's Porter.

See more photos of pre- and post-prohibition beer buttons on the Busy Beaver blog.

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The IBM Portable Personal Computer, one of the first “laptop” computers ever produced, was introduced by IBM in February 1984. The computer was considered portable due to the fact that it could be carried around like a small suitcase. The monitor and CPU were combined into one unit, and the keyboard folded down and could be detached when in use. Charlie Chaplin’s famous character “The Little Tramp” featured as part of a $36-million dollar IBM advertising campaign inspired by Chaplin’s films.

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Subaru, a subsidiary of the Japanese company Fuji Heavy Industries, has been producing cars in Japan since the 1950s. Subaru of America was founded in 1968, and was responsible for importing Subarus to the United States. The first Subaru car introduced in America, the 360, offered a counterpoint to the much larger cars being produced domestically at the time and was advertised as “cheap and ugly.” 

“The What? The Subaru” advertising campaign coincided with the 1971 release of the second Subaru, the 1100, and featured print ads, bumper stickers, and other peripherals to help introduce the brand to the wider American market. The campaign was designed to help consumers connect the company’s name with the physical shape of the car.