Buttons

Title

Buttons

Description

Buttons were one of the most popular and pervasive forms of political messaging during the 1960s, combining brief messaging and memorable graphic designs. Buttons were inexpensive to produce on a mass basis and easy to distribute. They afforded any individual an opportunity to voice their opinions and, potentially, reach a broad audience. As Hunter Oatman-Stanford has written, “From discreet lapel pins to oversized buttons on purses or backpacks, pinbacks invite conversation by declaring potentially controversial viewpoints to complete strangers.” In this way, buttons were (and still are) a particularly democratic form of political propaganda.

As button collector, John Aisthorpe, has put it, buttons offer “a little snapshot of history.” During the 1960s, buttons were vital to the visual identity of a range of movements. “There were many protest groups who put their views on buttons,” Aisthorpe recalls, “from the early ’60s with the Free Speech Movement (FSM) to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and, later, the Veterans for Peace, the Fifth Avenue Vietnam Peace Parade Committee, and the Yippies.” The political impact of buttons in the 1960s is hard to gauge, though their popularity suggests some modicum of significance. And, as Aisthorpe has asserted, “It’s hard to say what impact they had, but the text of buttons worn at protests were often used as antiwar chants, like ‘Hell no, we won’t go!’… They must have had some effect.” The buttons of the 1960s have remained some of the most enduring relics from this important past.

This collection includes buttons from a wide array of movements from the Sixties, including the student movement, civil rights and Black Power movements, women's liberation, environmentalism, the anti-nuclear movement, gay liberation, electoral politics, the Chicano movement, the labor movement and the counterculture, with a strong emphasis on the anti-war movement. In addition, a few buttons date from Roz Payne’s activist efforts in the 1970s and 1980s, including the early political campaigns of Vermont politician, Bernie Sanders.

Items in the Buttons Collection

payne_buttons_0001.jpg

Woodstock Music and Arts Fair 1969
payne_buttons_0002.jpg

Youth International Party late-1960s
payne_buttons_0004.jpg

unknown unknown
The Struggle for Peace

unknown ca. late-1960s
payne_buttons_0007.jpg

Watts Summer Festival and Parade Organizers 1967
payne_buttons_0008.jpg

unknown ca. late-1960s or early-1970s
payne_buttons_0009.jpg

Southern Christian Leadership Conference ca. 1968
payne_buttons_0010.jpg

unknown unknown
payne_buttons_0011.jpg

Watts Summer Festival and Parade Organizers 1968
payne_buttons_0012.jpg

unknown ca. 1980s
payne_buttons_0013.jpg

unknown ca. late-1960s or early-1970s
payne_buttons_0015.jpg

unknown ca. late-1960s
payne_buttons_0017.jpg

New Mobe ca. 1970
payne_buttons_0019.jpg

unknown unknown
payne_buttons_0020.jpg

International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers undated
payne_buttons_0022.jpg

unknown ca. 1968
payne_buttons_0023.jpg

unknown ca. 1966
d4d0b02734d2c8488b2c469083a490a8.jpg

Vari-Vue from Pictorial Productions, Inc. 1964
payne_buttons_0032.jpg

unknown; perhaps the Yippies ca. late-1960s
payne_buttons_0033.jpg

Youth International Party ca. 1968
payne_buttons_0035.jpg

unknown ca. late-1960s
payne_buttons_0036.jpg

National Mobilization Committee to End the War ca. 1967
payne_buttons_0037.jpg

unknown ca. 1964
payne_buttons_0038.jpg

Vietnam Veterans Against the War ca. late-1960s or early-1970s
payne_buttons_0039.jpg

Citizens for Kennedy-Fulbright ca. 1967- 68
payne_buttons_0040.jpg

Bradley 1973 1973
payne_buttons_0041.jpg

Coalition For A People’s Alternative 1980
payne_buttons_0042.jpg

unknown unknown
payne_buttons_0044.jpg

Stevenson 1960 ca. 1960
payne_buttons_0045.jpg

unknown ca. late-1960s or early-1970s
payne_buttons_0046.jpg

National Mobilization Committee to End the War 1967
payne_buttons_0047.jpg

unknown ca. late-1960s
payne_buttons_0048.jpg

No Tax for War in Vietnam Committee
payne_buttons_0049.jpg

McCarthy campaign ca. 1967 or 1968
payne_buttons_0050.jpg

Humphrey campaign 1968
payne_buttons_0051.jpg

Bradley 1973 1973
payne_buttons_0053.jpg

unknown unknown
payne_buttons_0054.jpg

Columbia Advertising 1969
payne_buttons_0055.jpg

Students for a Democratic Society 1965
payne_buttons_0056.jpg

National Mobilization Committee to End the War April 15. 1967
payne_buttons_0057.jpg

National Lawyers Guild late-1960s or early-1970s
payne_buttons_0058.jpg

United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America ca. 1969-70
payne_buttons_0060.jpg

National Lawyers Guild unknown
payne_buttons_0061.jpg

unknown ca. late-1960s
payne_buttons_0062.jpg

Youth International Party 1968

View all 167 items