The "X" is printed behind the band's name and it is half black and half gray in color. The band name is black with a gray border and the background is white.

Founded in 1973 by Stephen Della Bosca aka Ygarr Ygarrist in Los Angeles, Zolar X enjoyed regional success as a live act.  They dressed and acted like aliens from outer space; musically combined punk and glitter rock.  Other band members included Craig Rinehart, aka Eon Flash and George William Myers, aka Zory Zenith. After disbanding in 1981, Zolar X reunited in 2005. Zolar X is the subject of a documentary titled, Starmen On Sunset. Its release date is pending.  For additional information http://zolarx.com/

White text on a dark blue background.

A campaign was started in the early twentieth century by the Y.M.C.A. “to teach every man and boy in North America” to swim. George Corsan began teaching group swimming lessons in the Detroit Y.M.C.A. Group lessons, and lessons on land to build confidence, were radical new approaches to teaching swimmers. It is said that he taught over 800 boys to swim in Newark, New Jersey in just four weeks. Throughout the 1910s swimming classes grew to include families and people with disabilities. Olympic medalist Mark Spitz, Greg Louganis, Janet Evans, and President Ronald Regan all learned how to swim at the Y. More than 1 million swimmers a year were using Y.M.C.A.s in 1932 and by the 1980s Y.M.C.A.s were the largest operators of pools in the world. Swimming continues to be a large part of the programming in Y.M.C.A.s today.

A little over half of the button has a white background with the other part having a pink background, both with black stripes overtop. There is a yellow triangle in the middle of the button. 

Have info on this button? Contact us here.

An abstract image of various white, pink, black, and yellow shapes.

Have info on this button? Contact us here.

Black illustration of half a tire at the top of button with yellow text printed on it. Black text below the illustration on yellow background. 

This was a promotional button celebrating a concert that The Kinks gave at the Cobo Arena. The Arena opened in 1960 and began to host large attractions, serving as the home of the Detroit Pistons until 1978 and legendary bands such as Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, Madonna, and Jimi Hendrix. 

The Kinks played at the Cobo Arena on  April 7th, 1983. They were  part of the original British invasion music movement of the 1960s. Although the Kinks were at the height of their popularity in the late 60s/early 70s they experienced another surge of popularity in the early 1980s thanks to albums such as Give the People What They Want and State of Confusion. Around the same time a number of other popular bands covered Kinks early songs bringing their sound to a new generation - perhaps the most famous cover being Van Halen's take on You Really Got Me. The mid-1980s saw a decline in popularity for the band and they officially disbanded in 1996 but not before being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990

The radio station 'welcoming' the Kinks as per this button was WLLZ 98.7 "Detroit's Wheels!". The slogan for the station came from the popular nickname for Detroit - "The Motor City". WLLZ-FM also called Detroit's "Rockin' Best!" started in November of 1980 and at the time was the second most popular station in Detroit. 

Drawing of an elderly woman holding an oversized pen. Black text on pink background.

Wingamatic Pens were created in 1961 by the Columbia Pen and Pencil Company.

This button is a template. Illustration of a cartoonish pink faced child in a red and blue checkered hat and a blue shirt with a large white color on a white background surrounded by an outer red border with white text on it.

Have info on this button? Contact us here.

Red background with three white rectangular fields with blue borders that contain red all capitalized text and a blue ampersand in the bottom left corner after the first two white rectangles text fields.

Lawrence Weiner designed this for the Whitney Museum groundbreaking event in 2015. Weiner is a conceptual artist who often works with typography and text.

The Whitney Museum of American Art was begun by sculptor Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney’s advocacy on behalf of living American artists. In the early twentieth century, artists were facing difficulties exhibiting or selling their work in the United States. Mrs. Whitney began purchasing and showing their work in her studio, thereby becoming the leading patron of American art from 1907 until her death in 1942. The Whitney Museum was opened in 1931 and became the first museum collection to feature the work of living artists.

The neck of a white heron with a grey beak and black eye is wrapped around the left side of the button. A white and grey flower and stem bend next to the bird and the flower part resembles the heron's face. There is a small red fruit attached to the stem. The button is bordered with a black circle that separates the red background on the inside from the white background on the edge.

Have info on this button? Contact us here.

Illustration of the back of a nude person with a yellow wheel around their neck, with white text above and below on a blue background.

The 1965 series of LEAF "Fink Buttons" was illustrated by popular Mid-Century artist Basil Wolverton. Perhaps best known for his work at MAD Magazine, Basil Wolverton (July 9, 1909 – December 31, 1978) was an American cartoonist and illustrator famous for his humorously grotesque drawings. Wolverton worked in the "Golden Age" of comic books doing features like "Powerhouse Pepper" and "Spacehawk" in the 1940s. A 2009 New York Times article stated that Wolverton’s drawings embodied the “sick-and-proud humor” of MAD magazine and were considered a “virtuoso exercise in bad taste, made all the weirder for being so meticulously executed."