Black text on an apricot colored background. A black checked pattern runs around the outer edge.

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Black text on a green background, a black checkerboard pattern wraps the outer edge.

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Black text on a pale green-yellow background. A black checkered border runs around the edge.

“Jeepers, creepers, where’d ya get those peepers? Jeepers, creepers, where’d ya get those eyes?” Thus begins the chorus to the jazz standard, “Jeepers Creepers,” written by Jonny Mercer and Harry Warren for the 1938 movie Going Places. ‘Jeepers Creepers’ is a ‘minced oath’ stand-in for ‘Jesus Christ.’ (A minced oath is a kind of euphemistic stand-in for a word of profanity, much like the terms ‘heck,’ ‘shoot,’ and ‘gosh.’) Just two years prior, in 1936, the company AAA printed safety posters that read, “Jeepers Creepers, Use Your Peepers!” to warn drivers to stay vigilant on the road. Then, in 1939, the phrase and song both featured in a cartoon starring Porky Pig and his investigation into a haunted house; it was with this feature that the phrase became associated with creepy, haunted, and spooky themes.

Soon after, ‘Jeepers Creepers’ could be seen on everything and anything, from posters to buttons. In the 1940s, carnivals gave out checkered pin-back buttons as game prizes and souvenirs, many of which had funny phrases like “You’re the One” and “It Ain’t Gonna Rain No ‘Mo.” This “Jeepers Creepers” button may be a variation of this, but instead of the typical red and white checker print along the border, this has black and white, a call-back to the phrase’s spooky theme.

White text on a blue background.

In 1972, the Senate race for Delaware was a standoff between incumbent J. Caleb Boggs and New Castle County Councilman Joe Biden. With minimal campaign financing, Biden employed several family members to help run his campaign and relied heavily on donations. Buttons like these, under the purview of his brother and campaign finance manager Jim Biden, were sent to donors. Biden went on to win the 1972 Delaware Senate election. 

Orange background with a black line illustration of a man with a large cluster of balloons tied to his waist flying through the air.

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Red smiley face and black text on a rust stained yellow background.

“Souriez en Français” translates to “smile in French.” This is paired with a smiley face similar to the classic yellow smiley face that 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.

Pink background with purple text.

Naomi Fatouros, of Bloomington, Indiana, ran for Monroe County Community School Corporation (MCCSC) Board Trustee in both 1976 and 1980. In the fall of 1980, Fatouros made headlines after a court ordered the local newspaper to run a political ad (paid for by Fatouros) attacking her opponent, Ernest Horn, for not supporting non-English-speaking students. Fatouros scheduled the ad to be published night before the election, which went against the newspaper's policy that barred attack ads from running without sufficient time for an opponent’s response. The court determined that since Fatouros already paid for the ad, the newspaper was required to run it despite their policy.

This wasn't the first time Fatouros made headlines: four years earlier, she was a vocal critic of the inclusion of bibles in the MCCSC curricula. 

The background of this button has a light brown wave pattern throughout, and the face is divided into uneven thirds. The top section features black text and an illustration of a steam-powered amphibious vehicle on a tea green background. A signature reading "Oliver Evans" can be seen behind the illustration. The middle section is the largest and displays black text on a light tan background. The third section also has a tea green background and black text and contains a small portrait illustration of Oliver Evans.

Grain Craft Bar + Kitchen is a restaurant chain that opened originally in Newark, Delaware in 2015. The restaurant works with local community organizations to raise money through different types of events at their establishments and has raised over $40k since the chain’s creation. Oliver Evans was chosen as a mascot for the restaurant for his connection to the Delaware Valley and for his invention of the automated flour mill in 1790. Grain now has five locations around the Delaware Valley area. 

White text on a bright blue background.

Pontiac was a well-renowned American automobile brand. It first achieved popularity with the release of the Chief in 1926, which became the top-selling six-cylinder vehicle in the US. Pontiac became known as an affordable and reliable brand under its parent company General Motors, and was admired for its distinguishable visual elements such as the split grille and the silver streak running over the hood.

In the 1960s Pontiac transitioned towards performance sports cars, producing the GTO in 1964, which is considered the original “muscle car.” Several years later the Firebird achieved similar success, becoming an American icon over the years. 

Despite Pontiac’s achievements, the company succumbed to the 2008 financial crisis and discontinued production in 2010. 

A lenticular image that switches between a black and white photograph of Dwight D. Eisenhower's head surrounded by white text on a gray background, and a black and white photograph of Richard Nixon's head surrounded by black text on a white background.

After commanding the victorious allied forces in France and North Africa during WWII, General Dwight D. “Ike” Eisenhower was persuaded to run for President in the early 1950s. He chose as his running mate Richard M. Nixon, who at the time was a senator from California known for convicting the Soviet spy Alger Hiss.

The pair won a landslide victory, and Ike remained committed to his policy of maintaining world peace. He quickly negotiated the end of the Korean War, and sought friendly relations with Russia. Although he and Nixon would disagree on fundamental issues surrounding foreign policy and civil rights, the two would nevertheless remain close, especially after Ike’s grandson married Nixon’s daughter. Ike would later endorse Nixon’s own presidency in 1969.