A photo of Alf wearing a patriotic top hat with black and American flag- colored text. 

ALF was a popular television program on NBC which ran from 1986-1990. The title character is a friendly extraterrestrial life form that crashed landed in the garage of the Tanner family. The Tanners are a typical suburban middle-class family in San Fernando Valley, CA. The family names their guest "ALF" which stands for Alien Life Form. ALF is from the planet Melmac, he followed a ham radio which caused him to crash land on Earth. The Tanner family took him in as a member of their own family. ALF is a unrestrained, rambunctious character who constantly puts himself at the risk of getting discovered. 

Black text over white background. 

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An illustration of a car inside a yellow box. The yellow box has text inside it, red text on top and yellow/black text below. The yellow box is on a blue background with white text above and below the box. 

This button commemorates the Moko Lensey Matchbox collector.  The image on the button depicts the Moko Lensey first ever die cast toy, a “road roller,” in the Matchbox series.  The company made the toy between 1955 and 1957.  Moko Lensey was founded in 1948.  The unique name of the company is a portmanteau and made from a combination of its three earliest partners.  Moko is a shortening of Moses (Mo) Kohnstam (ko) and Lesney was a combination of Lesley Smith (Les) and Rodney Smith (ney).  By the early 1950s, the company began to use the less confusing name Matchbox.  The toy brand continues to be a leader among die cast toy manufacturers. 

Two hands shake within a black outlined red oval between red text over a yellow background. 

A "jobber" is an informal term for a wholesaler. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, this meaning dates from the mid-seventeenth century and may be used to refer to anyone buying and selling goods. In the North American context, the phrase, "Get it from your jobber," was often used in newspaper advertisements throughout the early twentieth century. The items advertised ranged from toilet tanks to car parts. The illustration seen on the button was trademarked by Indiana's Automotive Advertisers Council (AAC) in 1949 and by Canada's Smart & Biggar in 1950.

AAC was founded in 1941 and had offices throughout the America, including a branch in Chicago, Illinois and was once headquartered in Elk Grove Village, Illinois.  AAC changed its name in 1994 to the Automotive Communications Council and is currently headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland.  

Illustration of a stegosaurus under black text over green background.  

This is a button used to identify contributors who contributed money to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The American Museum of Natural History in New York City was established in 1869. This button may have been from the early 1900s, when the museum acquired many of their dinosaur fossils.

White stretched text on red background. 

William H. Dietz was a manufacturer of Sunday School Goods in the 1920s. This is most likely a button indicating the wearer brought someone with them to Sunday School.

A man in a chef's costume holds a tray of food in each hand above his head.  Everything is set against a yelow blackground. 

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An illustration of a white skull/ghost face with a uneven ring around it on a black background. 

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An illustration depicting a man in a red suit with a knife and fork running through a door and taking a couple by surprise. A small portion of the background is blue and the rest is white.

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An illustration of an open mouth. 

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