Black text along the top and bottom edges of the button and on a a blue stripe that goes across the center of the button on a white background. 

The Consolidated Steel Corporation was created in 1929 as a result of a merger of Llewellyn Iron Works, Union Iron Works, and Baker Iron Works. According to a small article that appeared in the Berkeley Daily Gazette, December 12, 1928, the consolidation of the three iron companies was going to occur before 1929. The consolidated company was in two locations, Wilmington, California and Orange, Texas, and was an American steel and shipbuilding business. Both shipyards were commissioned in the 1940s to build ships for the U.S. Navy. The Consolidated Steel Corporation built 39 destroyers and 100 destroyer escorts at their shipyards during World War II. 

A large blue C sits right in the center on a white background. In the center of the C is a blue X symbol made of railroad spikes and smaller letters in blue colored text.  Around the C are blue letters in a circle formation on green background.

Just five months before the meeting this button commemorates, was a strike of the Chicago Tunnel Company's union members. The union, Chicago Tunnel Lodge 125, protested the increasing shipment of goods by on-road trucks. The lodge member's worked underground downtown Chicago in the matrix of narrow-gauged railroad tunnels. The railroad served Chicago between 1906 and 1959 and had, at its peak, 60 miles of track, 149 locomotives, and over 3,000 freight cars. The tunnels laid abandoned until 1992 when a worker driving wooden piling into the banks of the Chicago River pierced a tunnel arch. About 124 million gallons of river water flooded the tunnels. 

An illustration of the Teamster logo sits in the center of the button, an image of two horses facing opposite directions connected to/or above a wheel. The illustration sits on a grey and white background with black text. On the edge of the button is black text on a red background that circles the illustration.   

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) is a labor union in the United States and Canada. Formed in 1903 by the merger of several local and regional locals of teamsters, it was originally known as the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America. Jimmy Hoffa, General President of the union, was instrumental in using the assets of the Teamsters' pension plans, particularly the Central States plan, to support Mafia projects, such as the development of Las Vegas in the 1950s and 1960s.

A close associate of Hoffa during this period was Allen Dorfman, who owned an insurance agency that provided insurance claims processing to the Teamsters' union, and which was the subject of an investigation by the McClellan Committee. Dorfman also had increasing influence over loans made by the Teamsters' pension fund, and after Hoffa went to prison in 1967, Dorfman had primary control over the fund. Dorfman was murdered in January 1983, shortly after his conviction, along with Teamsters' president Roy Lee Williams, in a bribery case.

An illustration of the Teamster logo sits in the center of the button, an image of two horses facing opposite directions connected to/or above a wheel. The illustration sits on a orange and white background with black text. On the edge of the button is black text on a mustard-yellow background that circles the illustration.   

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) is a labor union in the United States and Canada. Formed in 1903 by the merger of several local and regional locals of teamsters, it was originally known as the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America. Infiltration by organized crime dominated the agenda of the Teamsters throughout the 1950s.  Although the more extreme, public forms of corruption had been eliminated after General President Cornelius Shea was removed from office, the extent of corruption and control by organized crime increased during Daniel J. Tobin's time as General President of the union from 1907 to 1952. In 1929, the Teamsters and unions in Chicago even approached gangster Roger Touhy and asked for his protection from Al Capone and his Chicago Outfit, which were seeking to control the area's unions.

An illustration of a plow on a black background. Surrounding the plow is a white ring filled with black text in a circular formation.

The Cook County Truck Gardeners and Farmers Association (CCTG and F) began in 1902. It was a cooperative of local farmers who drove their produce into Chicago for sale. At its height during the middle twentieth century, the CCTG and F had its own insurance company, owned real estate, had about three thousand members, and was the largest organization within the Vegetable Growers’ Association of America. The CCTG and F disbanded during the 1960s.  This button likely dates from its 1941 annual conference.

The word attendance in red text over an image of a torch on a background consisting of numerous tiny black dots. 

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A red and green poppy with two blue American Legion logos on the left and right. The blue text arches above and below the flower and the background is white.

The millions of red crepe paper poppies that appear on Memorial and Veterans Days are all handmade by veterans to raise awareness and money for disabled and hospitalized veterans throughout the country. The American Legion Auxiliary Poppy Program was first created in 1921. The red poppy was used as the symbol because of a line that appears in the poem “In Flanders Fields.” This poem was written by Lt. Col. John McCrea, M.D. while he was on the battlefront in World War I.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved, and were loved, and now we lie 

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

The poppy became a symbol, not only of the lives that were sacrificed, but also the hope that none had died without cause. 

Illustration of the Nutribird rollerskating with green to to its left and black text below it on a white background.

In 1973, the American Dietetic Association (known today as the Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics) introduced National Nutrition Week. The campaign was used to promote the profession of dietetics and encourage healthy eating habits amongst Americans. By 1977, a mascot had been created to bolster the cause. Comprised of a head of lettuce and a carrot beak, Nutribird was used as a symbol of National Nutrition Week for several years. However, by the time National Nutrition Week was expanded to National Nutrition Month in 1980, Nutribird’s use had already begun to fade. This button, featuring Nutribird and the slogan “To Hit Your Stride...Eat Smart,” is from the 1980 National Nutrition Month campaign.  

Green text on a white background. The words are stacked on top of each other and the larger word in the middle has a green line above and below it.

The American Medical Association, founded in 1847 in Chicago, is dedicated to the promotion of improved public health, scientific advancement, and patient and doctor relationships. The association includes MDs, Dos and medical students throughout the United States. The association holds a lot of lobbying power and has worked against such movements as the health maintenance organizations during the Great Depression and Medicare in the 1950s and 1960s. The organization also supported certain movements such as the War on Drugs. The association has annual meetings to discuss their accomplishments and their future goals and projects. In addition to their work for patients and doctors AMA also published JAMA, Journal of the American Medical Association, to further promote research. This publication has the largest circulation in the world of any weekly medical journal.

An illustration of a man in a uniform reminiscent of a police officer on a blue and yellow background with black text.

During the 1930s, these buttons were passed out to the young members of the 49^th State Safety Legion. Based in St. Louis, this club was for children attending school in the city. The club was sponsored by the St. Louis Globe-Democrat newspaper along with the station KMOX and was intended to encourage children to be safe and to watch out for others. The figure of the man on the button is intended to be “General Safety”, who is the signature on letters sent to the children who had joined the organization, along with the button and a membership certificate. The children were encouraged to wear the buttons as often as possible in order to spread awareness.   These letters contained the rules of the club and then the “Safety Song.” A popular misconception is that the “49^th State” is referring to Alaska, but the buttons and program were from before it had been admitted into the United States.