Color photograph of Marilyn Morales on a light blue background with dark blue and black text and blue lines below

Marilyn Morales ran for Chicago City Clerk in the 2011 election. The City Clerk position is the second highest ranking office in the city, responsible for not only maintaining official records of city government, but also issuing various city licenses and permits. At the time, Morales would have been the highest-ranking gay person and the first Latina to hold the position. However, she fell short of the required 12,500 signatures by the November deadline. Despite this, Morales was grateful for all the support she received, and proud of how far she came from her grassroots origins.

Morales was born and raised in Chicago and has over 20 years public service experience, having worked for the Illinois Department of Human Rights, as operations manager for the Chicago Park District, and on the Advisory Board at the Institute of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture. She vowed to continue her public service. 

White background with black text and purple and red ribbons attached to the bottom. In the center is a black and white photograph of a horse.

The New York State Fair in Syracuse is a 13-day celebration featuring a wide variety of attractions including concerts, amusement rides, exhibitions and events, food and drinks, and competitions. The fair occurs every year from late August until Labor Day. It is the oldest state fair in the United States, having first taken place in 1841. It is also one of the largest, drawing over one million visitors annually.

The fair’s largest attractions are its animal, horticulture, and agricultural displays. Thousands of animals are exhibited including dairy cattle, pigs, goats, rabbits, and horses. A large collection of antique tractors celebrates New York’s agricultural heritage. The fair even hosts an annual Butter Sculpture, in which hundreds of pounds of butter are transformed into art. A main goal of the fair is to promote the importance of New York’s agriculture and home-grown products and foods.

White background with green and black text. To the left of the text is an illustration of black silhouetted figures in front of a green swirl.

PrideFest is part of a history of LGBTQ+ community organizing in St. Louis. Before the first PrideFest in 1980, some St. Louis LGBTQ+ community events included motorcycle club events, gay parades, drag and review performances and pageants, transgender networking and support groups, balls and dances, lesbian alliance events, gay rights rallies, weekend get-togethers, neighborhood Halloween celebrations, and delegations at national marches.

Green starburst background with a yellow starburst swoop and red, blue, white, and black text

Northwestern Central Dupage Hospital has provided acute medical care services to Chicagoans for over 50 years. In 2010, the hospital earned Magnet recognition from the American Nurses Credentialing Center for excellence in nursing.

In the center is a color photograph of a Black man in a dress United States Army uniform. The photograph is surrounded by white text on a black background.

This button celebrates the retirement of Joe Shakeenab from the United States military in 2010. Since retirement from military life, Shakeenab built a second career as a private leadership consultant, city councilman for Clarksville, Tennessee, community organization committee member and president of the Austin Peay State University alumni center. He also wrote two books: one about working for a US military service operation in Somalia in the 1990s, and the other a book of poetry "illustrating the phases (physical – moral – spiritual) of my fatherless life which I have grown to understand."

Multicolored graffiti-style text on a black background

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is a musical produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice based on the character of Joseph from the book of Genesis in the Bible. The musical came to development when Webber’s longtime friend, Alan Doggett, a musical teacher at Colet Court school in London, commissioned Webber and Rice to write a 15-minute pop cantata for the school's choir. On March 1, 1968 the students of the Colet Court school performed the first iteration of the musical which was met by a standing ovation and the offer of a deal by music publishers Novello and Co.

More than half a century and many productions later, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat continues to be appreciated by crowds of varying demographics, delivering the story of Joseph in a captivating and entertaining way. 

Neon green background with black text and a simple black illustrated sideways smiley face

The classic yellow smiley face is comprised of a yellow circle, two black dots for eyes, and a black arc ending in serifs for a mouth. It was designed in 1963 by commercial artist, Harvey Ross Ball. Ball was commissioned by The State Mutual Life Insurance Company to create a happy face to raise the morale of their employees. His version was created in 10 minutes. The design was printed onto more than 50 million buttons. Neither Ball nor the company copyrighted this smiley, so it was continually used by other businesses in their promotions.

The design and concept is quite simple and was definitely used before Ball’s 1963 version. However, his has become the most iconic. Variations have been used for advertising campaigns and in popular culture ever since.

In the 1980s the sideways smiley face was popularized by early internet users to mark jokes using :) or :-) (a combination of the keyboard's colon, dash and right parenthetical marks).

Off-white background with blue text, a blue ring around the outside, and a blue illustration of a can in the center

Or can you? The US Prohibition era lasted from the ratification of the 18th Amendment, which banned the consumption of alcohol in the United States starting in 1920, to the ratification of the 21st Amendment, which repealed this law in 1933.

Black and white photograph of two men kissing with black text on a white background below.

ACT UP was a grassroots advocacy movement that happened in the late-1980s in response to the AIDS pandemic. As this button shows, LGBTQ activists tackled anti-queer sentiment and social stigma that exacerbated the crisis, including through public displays of affection. The demonstrations of ACT UP were foundational to curbing the AIDS crisis and improving medical care for people worldwide.

Black background with a khaki-colored abstract design ring around the outside and white, khaki, and black text

In Chicago, Illinois on July 10, 2010, jazz musicians Jason Steele Quartet, Matt Ulery’s Loom, and Gunnelpumpers all performed in the small bar and music venue, Martyrs’. 

Jason Steele is an acclaimed jazz musician and composer. Matt Ulery’s Loom consists of Thad Franklin on trumpet, Tim Haldeman on tenor saxophone, Jon Deitemyer on drums, Rob Clearfield on accordian and piano, Zach Brock on violin, and Matt Ulery on double bass and compositions. The Gunnelpumpers band was founded in Chicago in 2002 by bassist and composer Douglas Johnson and percussionist Randy Farr. The main group consists of Johnson, Farr, rock guitarist John Meyer, Chicago Symphony bassist Michael Hovnanian, and session musicians Tom Mendel on bass guitar and Bob Garrett on drums. However, they have had 50 musicians perform alongside them.