Black line drawing of the head of a cowboy with a mustache, cigar, and cowboy hat surrounded by black text.

“Go-go” entered U.S. slang in the 1960s from the French à gogo (“in abundance”) and quickly became associated with club and fashion trends like go-go dancing and go-go boots. Cowboy imagery, popular since the 1950s and kept alive by mid-century advertising such as the Marlboro Man (from 1954), remained a durable motif. Taken together, the slogan and artwork suggest this button was a mid- to late-twentieth-century promotional or cheer piece—likely from the 1960s to 1970s—for a business, a person, or cartoon character nicknamed “Cosmo,” or a local team, club, or event. 

Dark red text appears over a bright yellow background. GE's logo sits next to a steaming cup of coffee.

"Want a good cup of coffee" was a slogan used by General Electric (GE or G-E depending on the era) to advertise their automatic coffee makers.

Cartoon bird in blue, red, and white with yellow beak and feet.  Blue text on white background.

This advertising novelty was produced in the early 1900s by the Whitehead & Hoag Co. (W&H). The button manufacturer was incorporated in 1892 by Benjamin Whitehead and Chester Hoag—two business men that had been fortunate enough to secure three major button patents before 1896, the year in which demand for buttons had skyrocketed. Before W&Hs' patents expired and the proliferation of the small printing press, the company was the world's largest button manufacturer. W&H was sold to a long-time competitor, Bastion Bros. Co., in 1959.  The same year its factory doors closed for the final time.

A red and white monk illustration exhales smoke while holding a cigarette. Button has a blue background with white text, with the button edges outlined in white.

Foy was a manufacturer of rolling papers in the 1960-1970s. The relaxed man exhaling smoke is Mr. Foy, demonstrating how "Foy brings joy." Some packages were "produced with pure hemp fibre", a statement printed between two cannabis leaves. 

Illustration of a waving white flag with red outline and four vertical blue stripes, on a white flagpole.  Navy blue background.

When the United States entered World War I, the Federal Government began selling "liberty bonds" to citizens to help cover war expenses. These bonds, sold primarily by the girl and boy scouts, were small loans taken by the U.S. government in which they would repay the citizens in the future. When the first three Liberty Loan Acts proved insufficient, the Fourth Liberty Loan Act was passed September 28, 1918, issuing $6 billion in war bonds with an interest rate of 4.25% for up to ten years. Artists were commissioned to create posters and famous actors, such as Charlie Chaplin gave speeches encouraging the public to do their patriotic duty and contribute to the war effort by purchasing one of these bonds.

White text on red background on top; bottom third has a blue background with white text along with a small illustration of an egg and jar of cream labeled in red.

Like many other companies at this time, Fischer took advantage of celluloid buttons to catch the eye of bread-buyers. This trend began in the 1910s with the Ward Baking Company and really caught on by the 1930s.

Black illustration of cartoon face peering out on the left with a lenticular eye (watches you as you move), red text on white background.

Have info on this button? Contact us here.

Nigh time photograph of Epcot's icon, Spaceship Earth, a large metallic sphere lit in blue and gold (somewhat resembles a golf ball) flanked by palm tress. Text is small and in white at the bottom.

Spaceship Earth, the 18-story geodesic sphere and theme park attraction, is the symbolic icon of EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow), a Utopian city of the future planned by Walt Disney.

The term was coined by Buckminster Fuller, known for his innovative work with geodesic domes among other things. And it’s reported that popular science fiction writer Ray Bradbury helped design the dome and original storyline for the attraction. Construction took over two years, and was sponsored originally by Bell Systems before the breakup, then AT&T until 2004; German company Siemens took over sponsorship after that. The theme of the attraction being a travel through the timeline of human communication, it is updated regularly to reflect current realities.

A black cat wearing a cylindrical container of Dustbane leaps on a pile of dust. Orange text outlined in black is featured at the top and bottom, other text is black.

Dustband Products Limited is a sanitary solutions company founded in 1908 by two entrepreneurial Canadians, Chester E. Pickering and George W. Green. Their first bright idea was to convince people to buy from them a product they were already using for free! The product was sawdust, which at the time was used as to clean floors. Pickering and Green added some pine-scent, made the sawdust green and marketed it as Dustbane Sweeping Compound. It worked. Over the years Dustbane has become a leader in the cleaning and sanitation industry selling environmentally friendly products for cleaning, finishing, polishing, scrubbing, sealing and sweeping in all sorts of commercial environments.

Red text with blue illustration of a yelling big-headed woman on a white background.

Culligan is an international water softening and purification company based in Rosemont, Illinois. Culligan is known for it's advertisements of a housewife yelling out the slogan "Hey Culligan man!" The campaign was originally created in 1959, and ran for 3 decades.