Red text in center surrounded by rainbow colored squiggles.

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White background with a large image of a brass horn covered with a city skyline in the background and several people in the foreground. The woman in the image is carrying several mugs of a beverage, and a logo is above right of the horn.

Between 1978 and 1983, Schlitz Brewing Company sponsored Chicagofest, a summer music festival that took place in the Chicago, Illinois. Performers over the years included The Blues Brothers, Muddy Waters, Frank Sinatra, Cheap Trick, and The Commodores.

Schlitz Brewing Company was a Milwaukee, Wisconsin brewery established in the late 1800s by Joseph Schlitz after he acquired the company from August Krug. They were known for making lagers, but they also made a malt liquor. In 1871, the brewery was coined “The Beer that Made Milwaukee Famous” after sending barrels of beer to the Chicago during the Great Chicago Fire. About 100 years later, Schlitz became the largest brewery in the world.

Orange-red thin border on a white background with orange-red text, an orange-red image of a globe with a city of skyscrapers on top surrounded by a blue circular border in the center, with black text on the globe and smaller white text in the blue border below the globe.  

Chicago has a long history as one of the convention capitals of the United States, and has played host to many large-scale political and professional conventions including the 1968 Democratic National Convention and the 2012 NATO Summit. The city houses McCormick Place, which is the largest convention center in North America. McCormick Place, the city's first permanent convention and exposition center, opened in 1960 and was then rebuilt and expanded after a fire destroyed the original building in 1967. The Chicago Convention Bureau, the organization that distributed this button, is now housed under Choose Chicago, a tourism marketing organization launched in 2012 by Mayor Rahm Emanuel. The mission of Choose Chicago is to bring both tourists and business professionals to Chicago, in an effort to boost the city’s economy and the community at-large.

4 red, six-pointed stars appear between two light-blue (cyan) bars, all before a white background.
 

This button shows the municipal flag of the City of Chicago. The official flag was originally adopted in 1917 and amended in 1933 and 1939 when two additional stars were added. The cyan and white bars represent geographical features of the city: the cyan stripes for Lake Michigan and the North Branch of the Chicago River; the top, middle, and bottom white bars for the North, West, and South Sides, respectively. The four red, six-pointed stars symbolize four historically significant events in the city's history: 1. Fort Dearborn and the massacre of settlers and destruction that took place there in 1812; 2. the Great Chicago Fire of 1871; 3. the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893; and 4. the Century of Progress Exposition of 1933-34. Each of the star's six points represents a unique value, attribute, or historical fact about the city as well. 

Dark blue background with a red border, center image a white silhouette of a city skyline with text overlay and a small blue and red rectangle logo with a white silhouette of a baseball player in the upper left center.

The Chicago Cubs are a Major League Baseball (MLB) team. Founded in 1876 as the Chicago White Stockings, the team was renamed in 1903. The Cubs were a founding member of the National League, and now play in the National League Central Division. The team is affectionally known as “The Cubbies” or “North Siders” and play their home games at Chicago’s historic Wrigley Field. They have a loyal fan base and—regardless of decades of mixed success—are one of the most popular franchises in baseball. In 2016, the Chicago Cubs went on to break a 108-year losing streak curse with their first World Series championship since 1908. 

The logo that is represented on this button has been the Cubs' logo since 1979 and the silhouette in the background is of the Chicago skyline—a cityscape often ranked as the tallest and most magnificent skylines in the world. It has three of America's five tallest buildings. 

Read more about the History of Cubs Buttons on the Busy Beaver blog.

White text over a dark green background.

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Pale yellow background with line illustration of a man wearing a hat.

Alphonse Gabriel Capone was born in Brooklyn, New York. Growing up, Capone was a low-ranking Five Points Gang member. Capone moved to Chicago where he became a bodyguard for Johnny Torrio, boss of the Chicago Outfit Gang. After Torrio retired, Capone became the new boss. He quickly expanded the gang’s bootlegging business during the Prohibition Era. The gang’s violence contributed to Capone being “Public Enemy No. 1” to the FBI. Eventually, Capone was sentenced to prison for 11 years for tax evasion, a strategy used by the government in order to prosecute high-ranking gang members. Capone was released after 8 years; he died shortly after being released from cardiac arrest.

This button was manufactured by the Busy Beaver Button Co.

A printed image of Grover Cleveland is surrounded by a brass outer layer. The printed image is protected by a glass covering. 

This button is likely a campaign button used in Grover Cleveland's first Presidential bid in 1884. The button features a modern printed image covered with a protective layer of glass, which represents a pioneering design and technique at the time in button history. For this reason, it is considered one of the “crown jewels” of our collection.

Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837 – June 24, 1908), the first Democrat President after the Civil War, was the 22nd and 24th President of the United States. He was the only President to leave the White House and return for a second term four years later (1885-1889 and 1893-1897). He was also the first bachelor President when elected to office and the first one to get married while in office. He met the future First Lady Frances Folsom when she was 11, and proposed to her via a letter when she was attending college. They were married in the Blue Room in the White House.

During his presidencies, Cleveland supported the gold standard and pursued policies that limited government responsibilities and reduced high tariffs. He was also known for his blunt treatment to the railroad workers in Chicago, for that he sent Federal troops to enforce an injunction imposed on the strikers. Cleveland had blemished records on civil rights advancement. He campaigned against the Enforce Bill that ensured the voting rights of African Americans, extended the Exclusion Act on Chinese immigrants, and lobbied congress for a bill to forbid their returns.

A brass button with raised lettering along the top portion of the button. An oval well sits in the center of the button with two large raised letters placed in the middle. 

George Washington inaugural buttons were created to announce the first presidential inauguration. Washington’s inauguration ceremony took place on April 30, 1789, on the balcony of Federal Hall in New York City. People who attended Washington’s first inauguration could purchase commemorative buttons as souvenirs marking the historic occasion.

There are many different design variations of the George Washington inaugural buttons. However, this version is the most popular and most common. ‘Long Live the President’ is a play on the traditional proclamation of ‘Long Live the King’ which was often declared following the accession of a new monarch to the throne.

A brass rimmed button with an illustration of Stephen Decatur in the center and black text at the top of the button. The illustration and text lies on a white background. 

Commodore Stephen Decatur (1779-1820) was an American naval officer known for his many victories at sea. Throughout his career he commanded seven different battleships and fought in the Quasi-War (1798-1800) against France, and in the First Barbary War against the Barbary States. The latter is considered the United States' first military foray into the Middle East/North Africa region.