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."

An illustration of a "atomutant" in blue, pink, yellow, red, and black in front of a night sky scape with white stars. The owl-like creature is looking forward and the eyes are the only discernable features within the colors. The text is black and written on a white arch over the top of the button.

Gary Panter is an artist and part time musician who was born in Oklahoma and raised in Texas. He is noted for having a distinct art style and he created several objects for Pee-Wee's Playhouse. He created comics in the 1970's and 1990's such as Jimbo's Inferno.

Illustration of two orange and black bees on an orange and black background with orange text.

Buttons like this one were found in the packages of Armour Star Franks as a part of a promotional series called the "Breezy Buttons". Dating all the way back to the 1920s, the "Breezy Buttons" featured popular slang phrases. "What's Buzzin' Cousin" was a phrase that was popular in the 1940's which was used in much the same way "what's up" is used today.

A blue symbol with four points borders the red and white text for the name of the program. There is an illustration of a globe inside the lower point. The station information and the host name are inside of a red and white banner on the top and bottom of the symbol. The station identification info is blue and the host's name is black text. The background is red and white stripped.

Bruce DuMont is a Chicago based political analyst who has been active in political broadcasting since 1968. He began his career producing a radio show for WGN Radio. DuMont’s first on-air performance came with WLTD Radio in Evanston, Illinois where he quickly gained fame for his style of investigative reporting. DuMont began the show “Inside Politics” (now “Beyond the Beltway”). The original program was on air through WBEZ-F (91.5) from 1980 to 1995. (The show eventually moved to Citadel Broadcasting news/talk WLS-AM (890)). The show usually featured one-on-one interviews, sometimes round tables, with political candidates or newsmakers. Although this is a much later broadcast, you can listen to a political discussion between Bruce DuMont and Rick Santorum on youtube.

DuMont, outside of his broadcasting successes, also founded the Museum of Broadcast Communications in 1987. This repository not only holds and preserves historic and contemporary broadcasts from radio and television, it also has an online resource called the “Encyclopedia of Television.” The “Encyclopedia of Television” contains original essays on historic moments, policies, disputes, major television networks, etc. 

Illustration of an open book with a black torch above it and red text on a yellow cross-like symbol with a light blue background.

The Vacation Church School is different from Vacation Bible School in that the “church school” teaches about more than just bible stories and scripture. Some of the topics that would be covered in Vacation Church School would include scripture, saints, feasts, worship, music, and prayers. Vacation Church School is usually conducted in the summer after the school year ends and before the new year begins, so that children can have longer hours of uninterrupted instruction. It appears that Vacation Church School is used by the orthodox and evangelical denominations as they have more church doctrines to instill in their church communities. Looking at the Beatrice Daily Sun on June 2, 1972 it can be seen that many of the churches are holding Vacation Church Schools. Most of the schools begin in the morning and go into the early afternoon.