Blue illustration of a profile view of a person in a Native American feathered headdress with blue text above and below on a white background.

The Ottawa Ski Club was founded in 1910 by a group of ski jumpers. They set up jumps in Rockliffe Park to begin with. Ski jumpers, unlike pleasure skiers were in need of a club where they could build towers and jumps. The popularity of ski jumping continued to grow and during World War I the club raised a lot of money jumping for the Red Cross. The tower was knocked down by weather in 1915, but the club reorganized in 1919. The new club members began promoting pleasure skiing, long distance outings, racing, etc. they did not want to just be known for ski jumping. As the club grew they invested in shelters and lodges throughout the Gatineau park. The club also continued to groom and clean trails. The Ottawa Ski Club was extremely influential in bringing skiing sports to thousands of people. The ski club also published newsletters as a way of reaching their members.

Mortureux, C. E. (1942). “The Saga of the Ottawa Ski Club.” Ottawa Ski Club Handbook. 2-9.

Half the button has a white background and the other half is purple. There is an orange circle on one side overlapping both background colors.

Have info on this button? Contact us here.

Image of a face with orange large eyes, a mouth, and eyebrows on a black background.

Have info on this button? Contact us here.

The classic yellow smiley face 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 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.

Light green text on dark green background around the outer edge of the button with a light green inner circle with dark green text. There is a white banner across the middle with dark green text on it. 

Oil Wagon Drivers, Chauffeurs, & Filling Station Employees, Local 705, was a Chicago union affiliated within the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Stablemen and Helpers of America and American Federation of Labor. After 1940, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Stablemen and Helpers of America changed its name to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America and is currently known as the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.  By the 1940s, the union, especially Local 705, was considered the most abusive and corrupt unions in the US.

White text on a green and red badge over a white background. 

Falsies are paddings used to create the look of larger breasts and despite this method being used for quite some time, the term “falsies” didn’t really become popular until the late 1950s. It was also around this time that breast implants became an option as well. As a “humorous” joke, these Official Falsie Inspector buttons were created in the 1960s and anyone who wore the button was believed to be an official inspector on whether or not females had real breasts.  

Illustration of a green leaf in the center with green text along the outer edge of the button, on a white background. 

The Oakwood OK Club was a social club located in Oakwood, New York. The Oakwood OK club sponsored an annual picnic for the benefit of the local community. The picnic featured entertainment as well as refreshments.

White background with various illustrations and images all over it (butterfly, cat-headed person in a tie riding a scooter, elephant-headed person in a dress, Christmas string lights etc). There is a large illustartion of a green and white bird perched on a brown branch in the middle of the button.

This image of a bird and very prominent “No. 9” is part of Tony Fitzpatrick’s collection of etchings by that title. Tony Fitzpatrick is a Chicago based artist who began his art career in the 1980s drawing with colored pencils in a store front gallery in Villa Park, Illinois. This collection, No. 9, was reviewed in the Austin Chronicle in December of 2009. The reviewer, Wayne Brenner, said the following about the collection, "This art is spectacular in its meticulous arrangements of images – birds, women, snakes, flowers, cityscapes – and the borrowed texts adhered. The works feature a central figure surrounded by smaller figures and sharp typography, the whole thing as busy as a galaxy of information without being cluttered, offering an idea of what holy file-drawer labels might look like in the main warehouse (carved from pure crystal, illuminated by some energy within) of some God of Memory."

The full title of this collection is “No. 9, An Artist’s Journal” as the inspiration for the etchings all came from the daily musings and experiences of Tony throughout his life. His pieces were also inspired by his surroundings while in Tokyo, Chicago, and New Orleans.

White text and "swoosh" symbol on an orange background

Nike, Inc. started as Blue Ribbon Sports on January 25, 1964, founded by Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman. Bill Bowerman was the track coach at University of Oregon and Philip Knight was a track athlete. The company’s name eventually changed to Nike, the Greek goddess of victory, on May 30, 1971. Shortly after the company’s name change, the highly recognizable “swoosh” symbol, designed by Carolyn Daivdson, was launched and patented. The company is based in Beaverton, Oregon, and employs over 44,000 people throughout the world. Although the company specialized in track shoes when it was first founded, they now manufacture a variety of athletic clothing and equipment. Nike has sponsored numerous athletes throughout the years, but also has been endorsed by certain athletes. The first endorser of Nike products was the famous distance runner Steve Prefontaine, who was coached by Bowerman. Furthermore, the date that is found on this button, 1984, corresponds with the signing of Michael Jordan as a promoter of Nike products. Michael Jordan was a very popular element to the advertising of Nike commercials, like this example from 1987 found here.

Gold ring around outer edge of button with text the same blue as the overall background color blue and gold text in the center.

Have info on this button? Contact us here.

Illustration of a man with an open mouth coming out of the top of his head, a long large nose and a skinny long neck on a green background with black text above and below. 

This button is from the 1965 series of LEAF "Fink Buttons" 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 states 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."