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.

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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."

A photograph of five men posing with the lightly clouded sky in the background. The three men in the front are wearing button down shirts that are black, white, and red and black. The two men in the back row are wearing baggy grey blazers. The text is red and stacked on the bottom of the button.

The New Kids on the Block are an American boy band that had greatest success in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The band is comprised of six members: Jordan and Jonathan Knight, Joey McIntyre, Donnie Wahlberg, and Danny Wood. The group disbanded in 1994 but was reunited in 2008 and they are continuing to tour and perform even now. The band was signed with Columbia Records and their self-titled debut album was released in April of 1986. Their debut album did not have much success. It wasn’t until their second album’s single “Please Don’t Go Girl” started getting attention in Florida and eventually MTV that the band really started to gain recognition. By the early 1990s the band members were some of the highest paid entertainers, over Michael Jackson and Madonna. The group’s final single to make it on to the Billboard’s Hot 100 was “Dirty Dawg” in 1993. The band broke up soon after. The band reunited in 2008 and continues to tour.

Blue text on a white background. 

"I am neither for nor against apathy" is a quote from the comedian Mort Sahl. The joke is that he is being apathetic about apathy. Mort Sahl is a standup comedian who started at a club called the hungry i in the 1950s. He sees himself as a political satirist in the vein of Mark Twain and he satirized every President after Eisenhower. He said that apathy was one of the biggest problems in the late 1950s, at the end of McCarthyism, because nothing can change if no one takes sides.

Yellow, orange, red, and blue line waves on a beige background. The text is small and black, and it is positioned on the right side of the orange colored wave.

National Semiconductor was an American semiconductor manufacturer which specialized in analog devices and subsystems. It was founded in Danbury, Connecticut by Dr. Bernard J. Rothlein on May 27, 1959, when he and seven colleagues left their employment at the semiconductor division of Sperry Rand Corporation. The founding of the new company was followed by Sperry Rand filing a lawsuit against National Semiconductor for patent infringement. On April 4, 2011, Texas Instruments announced that it had agreed to buy National Semiconductor for $6.5 billion in cash. The deal made Texas Instruments one of the world's largest makers of analog technology components.