AC DC in white text with a lightening bolt between AC and DC, underneath is text that goes from yellow to orange to red and logo at the bottom, on a black background.

This button is a promotional button for classic rock band, AC/DC's fifth album: Powerage. Although the album did not even reach the top 100 on the Billboard charts when it debuted, the album became one of the band's many platinum albums. While the album continued to receive mixed reviews as time goes on, it still has been revered as a finely crafted rock album. It was named 26 on Kerrang! magazine's list of the "100 greatest heavy metal albums". Perhaps the most well-known song off the album is "Rock 'n' Roll Damnation" which did moderately well as a single and is unique from most of the band's hits as it does not feature a guitar solo.

AC/DC is an Australian rock band founded by brothers Angus and Malcolm Young. The band is considered a staple of classic rock, and produced hits such as "Back in Black", "Thunderstruck", "Highway to Hell", and "For Those About to Rock" among others. The band formed in 1973 with original singer Bon Scott. Powerage was one of the last albums to feature vocals from Scott before his death in 1980. These early years are refereed to as the Bon Scott Era, and all years following 1980 are considered the Brain Johnson Era - named for the band's second lead singer. Johnson was friends with Bon Scott and both were heavy influenced by 1950s rocker Little Richard. Elements of Little Richard's performance style can be found in both singers' physical movements and singing style.

The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003.

A smiling face and text in black on a pink background.

This button is urging voters to support Robert "Bob" Bily for the Illinois' 8th District seat in the 1976 election. Unfortunately, "Bob" only captured 14% of the vote, losing to his like-minded opponent, Democrat Harry "Bus" Yourell, along with Republicans Jane M. Barnes and Herbert V. Huskey.  
 
Upon his retirement in 1985 after a successful career in business, Joseph Robert "Bob" Bily moved to Arlington, Texas. "Bob" died there at the age of 82 in 2005.

This button is a variation on the classic yellow smiley face that 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 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.

A smiley face with black text under it, both on a lime green background. 

This button is urging voters to support Robert "Bob" Bily for the Illinois' 8th District seat in the 1976 election. Unfortunately, "Bob" only captured 14% of the vote, losing to his like-minded opponent, Democrat Harry "Bus" Yourell, along with Republicans Jane M. Barnes and Herbert V. Huskey.  
 
Upon his retirement in 1985 after a successful career in business, Joseph Robert "Bob" Bily moved to Arlington, Texas. "Bob" died there at the age of 82 in 2005.

This button is a variation on the classic yellow smiley face that 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 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.

White text on a blue background. 

“Help Stamp Out Rhinestones” was, according to an article in the December 20, 1967 Albuquerque Tribune, a slogan used by a jeweler in Albuquerque to convince husbands to buy their wives diamonds. The article explains, “’Help Stamp out Rhinestones’ is the slogan on a sky blue button being sported by Dick Rubenstein” the manager of the local jewelry store. (pg. B-2). The article also gives a description of what jewelry trends are during this time period. Overall women wanted to own several nice pieces of jewelry as opposed to many costume pieces. Furthermore, “women are more and more preferring the bracelet watch . . . [or pieces with] colored stones daringly combined with diamonds.” (ibid). Another advertisement using this slogan appeared in the Independent Pasadena on June 2, 1968. 

A colorful and graphic set of eyes and a nose above black, yellow, and blue text on a white background. (this is a sticker stuck to the front of a button)

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A red, anthropomorphized piece of chocolate below black text on a white background.  

Chocolate chips are small teardrop shapes of sweetened chocolate. They are found in a number of desserts and sweets, but they are most well known for the classic chocolate chip cookie.  It is not exactly clear which chocolate manufacturer invented chocolate chips. Hershey states they have been selling chocolate chips since 1928 and are on record for the Hershey's kiss (a large individual drop of chocolate) becoming commercially available in 1907; however, the popularity of chocolate chips did not take off until 1937 with the creation of the Toll House cookie. Ruth Graves Wakefield of the Toll House Inn of Whitman, Massachusetts, added cut-up chunks of a semi-sweet Nestlé chocolate bar to a cookie recipe. The cookies were a huge success; in 1939, Nestlé offered Wakefield a lifetime supply of chocolate in exchange for her recipe, which they printed on the packaging of a chocolate bar. In 1941, Nestlé began selling chocolate chips commercially.

A short mythological Viking outlined in purple is wearing a helmet and carrying a shield and torch. The character is standing behind a cannon as it goes off and blasts the red "SOUTH" text with a cannon ball.  The other text is in purple along the top of the button on a white background.

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Black background with red and white text. "Iron Maiden" and "Quiet Riot" are written in their logo styles.

On October 4th, 1983 Iron Maiden and Quiet Riot played at the Baltimore Civic Center - the entire event sponsored by local radio station, 98 Rock. 98 Rock, otherwise known as WIYY or 97.9FM is currently active in Baltimore and plays rock music. The station often sponsors local concerts and classic rock groups - it has been recognized as one of the nation's top rock radio stations.

Iron Maiden is an English rock band active from the early 70s.. They were early pioneers in the genre known as 'metal'. This particular concert was part of Iron Maiden's 'World Piece Tour' to promote the band's fourth album Piece of Mind. Maiden's tour would be a whopping 139 shows and the associated album was a huge success including metal anthems 'The Trooper', 'Flight of Icarus', and 'Where Eagles Dare'. 

Quiet Riot, the other band performing was a popular 1970s-1980s hair metal band that disbanded in 1990 and has been sporadically active since. Quiet Riot released their hugely successful album Metal Health (1983)  featuring the hit song "Cum on Feel the Noize". In 1984 Quiet Riot released another album (Condition Critical) that could not achieve Metal Health popularity it still was commercially successful. Rarely did Quiet Riot, even when successful, perform as the headline act - they spent much of 1983 opening for Black Sabbath on the "Born Again Tour". Having made a comeback in recent years, Quiet Riot is attempting new music like many other hair rockers that are becoming beloved by a younger generation.

The Baltimore Civic Center has hosted everything from rock-stars to monster trucks since being built in 1962 atop Old Congress Hall. Baltimore Arena would become the official name of the venue in 1986 and starting in 2003 First Mariner Arena (due to sponsorship from First Mariner Bank). 

White cursive text on a red background.

Saint Valentine's Day, also known as Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is a holiday observed on February 14 each year. It is celebrated in many countries around the world, although it is not a holiday in most of them. The day was first associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished. In 18th-century England, it evolved into an occasion in which lovers expressed their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery, and sending hand-written cards, known as valentines.

An image of Jean-Calude Van Damme's face surrounded by the face of a red clock . He is holding a gun and the lower image shows an entrance to the time portal emitting light. Image has green text at the top and middle of the button.

A Science Fiction Action film from 1994 written by Mike Richardson and Mark Verheiden and starring Jean-Claude Van Damme based the short story. Van Damme is a police officer named Max Walker who works for the Time Enforcement Commission and stops time travel related crime and preserves the time stream. He becomes embroiled in a plot by his former partner who is attempting to use the knowledge of the past to become rich and tries to stop him with a new field Agent played by Gloria Ruben.