Stop the Draft!”
“I Like Ike”
“I’m with Her”
From the iconic to the incendiary, political messages like these have emblazoned buttons and pins since the start of US elections. Since 2012, Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government (HKS) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has been archiving political buttons. The collection now includes thousands of items spanning a century’s worth of campaigns and causes.
“Pre-internet, this is a very clear way to display your loyalties and affiliations publicly,” says Corinne Wolfson, digital collections librarian for HKS’ Library and Research Services.
The collection has approximately 4,800 buttons and pins and 200 stickers. Most fit into one of three categories: campaigns (local and national), sociopolitical movements, and community organizations like unions. The oldest item is a William McKinley presidential pin, estimated to originate from 1896. The 1960s and 1970s were a heyday for buttons, Wolfson says. Antiwar, racial justice, and LGBTQ visibility efforts resulted in an abundance of both mass-produced and DIY buttons.
Standout buttons for Wolfson are those that satirize politicians or policies, like a 1972 pin with a caricature of President Nixon with “inoperative” written across the forehead.
“The snarkier ones are the ones that grab people’s interest,” she says.
HKS hopes to secure more buttons in national election years like this one. However, the library cannot directly purchase them—that would be considered a campaign contribution. Buttons must be either donated or acquired through third-party sellers.
Many of these buttons and their messages remain topical. “You could be like, ‘I could wear that today. That would still speak to current issues,’” Wolfson says. “There’s this throughline of history.”
Visit curiosity.lib.harvard.edu/political-buttons to browse or search HKS’s button collection and check out curated collections.
