Black and white portrait of Jimmy Carter luxuriously surrounded by yellow ribbons, cascading American flag, and topped with an eagle. Red text below portrait over blue background. 

James "Jimmy" Earl Carter ran against incumbent Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr. in the 1976 US Presidential election. Carter's running mate was US Sentator from Minnesota, Walter Mondale. Ford stuck with his vice president, Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller.  Carter and Mondale received 50.1% to Ford and Rockefeller's 48% of the popular vote. The electoral votes were not so close with 297 going to Carter and Mondale, 240 for Ford and Rockefeller, and 1 vote from Washington State going to Ronald Reagan.

When Carter was elected, he became the first Democrat from the US South to be elected to the office since before the Civil War. During his single term, Carter established the Department of Education and the Department of Energy. His presidential legacy is often overshadowed by economic and international relations problems, culminating with the USSR's invasion of Afghanistan beginning in 1979 and the Iran Hostage Crisis from 1979-1981. Carter lost to Ronald Reagan in the 1980 election by a margin of 440 electoral votes.

Black and white illustration of Jimmy Carter over an American flag above black text over white background. 

When James "Jimmy" Earl Carter began his campaign for US President, he was a litle known Southern Democrat from Plains, Georgia. Carter had state experience with two terms as a state legislator from 1962-1966, and one as governor from 1971-1975, but his name lacked recognition outside Georgia. After being selected as the Democratic National Committee's mid-term election leader, his popularity grew within the party. He gained a reputation as an ethical, down-to-earth Washington D.C. outsider, and Americans came to view him as the peanut farmer from Georgia who could set the country straight in the aftermath of Watergate and the Vietnam War.  

Carter was selected as the Democratic candidate in the 1976 presidential election and ran against incumbent Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr. Carter's running mate was a US Sentator from Minnesota, Walter Mondale. Carter and Mondale emerged victorious, receiving 50.1% of the popular vote and 297 electoral votes. 

Photograph of Bill Clinton playing the saxaphone next to white text over red and blue striped background. 

This button endearingly pokes fun at Bill Clinton, 42nd President of the United States. The picture on the button was the famous picture of Clinton playing his saxophone on Arsenio Hall Show in 1992, during the election. As the first Baby Boomer Presidential candidate, Clinton's youthfulness and jazz-playing grooviness were identified with by the large voter population who grew up in the 60s and 70s and thus led to Clinton's defeat of the incumbent President George H. W. Bush in 1993. 

Black and yellow text over black and yellow background. 

This is a satirical button that served to attack Bill Clinton's credibility in his 1996 election. The message of the button was to align Bill Clinton with O.J. Simpson, an NFL football player famous for his controversial acquittal in the murder case of his wife in 1994. Bill Clinton was the incumbent President at the time and managed to proceed and win the election. 

Yellow hat under black text bellow yellow text over worn, blue background.

The hat illustrated on this button represents the famous hat worn by William Hale "Big Bill" Thompson (1869-1944). One major Chicago-area news source called Thompson Illinois's "most corrupt public official" in the state's history. He was the mayor of Chicago from 1915 to 1923, and again from 1927 to 1931. African-Americans often supported the Republican Party because it was the party of Lincoln, and Thompson exploited African-American support by granting special jobs to his black supporters while ostracizing working-class whites. Thompson's actions are stated to have contributed strongly to Chicago's 1919 race riot.  He socialized with and supported gangster Al Capone. During his re-election campaign, he promised to stop police raids related to Prohibition and won by a considerable margin.

Blue caricature of H. Ross Perot next to white, red and blue text over red and white, striped and starred background. 

The button satirically combines H. Ross Perot's 1996 US Presidential campaign slogan, "Americans for Perot," with a joke, "United We're Nuts," from a segment on late night talk show host David Letterman's television show. Letterman's segment, a top ten list titled "Top Ten Rejected Names for Ross Perot's Political Party," aired on September 26, 1995 and the joke was number nine.  

Perot was a third party candidate in the 1992 and 1996 presidential elections. In both elections, he did not receive any electoral votes, but did receive 19% and 8% of the popular vote, respectively. He ran as an indepentent candidate in 1992, however in 1996 he ran as a candidate for the Reform Party. 

Jugate featuring Hillary Clinton and Mary Gore surrounded by orange banners, a pink heart, presidential inauguration seal over purple background. 

This button dates from the second inauguration US President Bill Clinton, which occurred on January 20, 1997. The images are of Hillary Rodham Clinton, the First Lady and wife of Bill Clinton, and Mary "Tipper" Gore, the wife of US Vice President Al Gore.

Hillary Clinton was born in Chicago, IL and attended Wellesley College in Massachusetts during the 1960s. At Wellesley, she was active in the Young Republicans until her views on civil rights and the Vietnam War changed. After graduation, she attended Yale Law School where she met her future husband. She helped found the Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families in 1977, and in 1978 was appointed to the Legal Services Corporation's board of directors by then US President Jimmy Carter. She was on the board of the New World Foundation from 1982-1988 and the Arkansas Children's Hospital Legal Services from 1988-1992. She was also active in working to remove gender bias in legal professions and served as the American Bar Association council's chair from 1987-1991. After Bill Clinton was elected president, she continued to work towards health care reform and women's equality.

A portrait of Albert J. Beveridge between black text above and below and decorative "s" symbols on right and left on a yellowed background. 

The image on this button is that of Albert J. Beveridge. Beveridge was born in 1862 in Ohio. He later became a United States Senator from Indiana and was known for his oratory skills.

Round jugate black and white images of Reagan and Bush with gold rays of light in background, with an illustration of lady liberty in front of the American flag in the lower half of the button. 

The button dates from the 1980 US presidential campaign, and features the Republication cadidate for president Ronald Regean and his vice presidential candidate, George H.W. Bush.   

Reagan was born in Illinois and moved to California to become an actor. He left acting to pursue policice, and served as California's governor from 1967-1975 and unsuccessfully ran for president in 1976. Bush was born in Massachusetts and his father, Prescott Bush (1895-1972), was Wall Street banker and US Senator for Connecticut. Bush, like his father, was also an elected official. He was a member of the US House for Texas, then served appointments as both the US Ambassador to the UN and the director of the CIA. In the 1980 presidential election, Reagan and Bush soundly defeated the Democratic candidates Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale, receiving 489 of the 538. 

Red text over and below a yellow bean shape next to a blue downward pointing arrow with white text over a black background. 

Launched in 1989 on Rush Street, Boogie’s Diner Chicago combined a 1950’s American diner with a clothing store with a focus on contemporary fashion for men and women age 15 to 35.  It was part of Merry-Go-Round Enterprises, which filed for bankruptcy in 1994.