Friday the 13th Button

It’s Friday the 13th! Check out this vintage, black cat button:

While the number 13 has been considered unlucky for centuries, superstitions about Friday the 13th didn’t begin until the 20th century. And sometime over the past century black cats became the unofficial mascot for the ominous holiday. Busy Beaver’s love for all things kitten has us a bit disturbed by the negative depiction of our fave furry friend, but we do love the simply elegant design of this vintage button.

Need to create custom buttons for your next holiday or event? Shop now at busybeaver.net.

Museum Monday: Allergy Annie

Spring has sprung! While some welcome the warm weather and blossoming trees others consider Spring the season of Kleenex® and Claritin®. Check out poor Allergy Annie housed in the advertising section of the Busy Beaver Button Museum:

Since this allergy season is shaping up to be the worst on record, we’re wishing Allergy Annie and all her fellow allergy sufferers the best— it’ll be Summer soon enough!

Be sure to check back in two weeks for the next installment of Museum Monday.

Museum Monday: Happy Cadbury Egg Day!

Our favorite part of Easter? The Monday after when all the Cadbury Eggs go on sale! Happy belated Easter from the Busy Beaver Button Museum.

Be sure to check back in two weeks for the next installment of Museum Monday.

“Black Swan” and the Avant Garde

It’s time to cook up some Jesse EisenBurgers and True (Cheese) Grits! The 83rd Academy Awards air this Sunday on CBS. Will Natalie Portman win Best Actress for her performance in “Black Swan”? We’ll have to wait and see but in the meantime take a look at this striking “Black Swan” movie poster created by British design studio LaBoca:

Black Swan movie poster by British design studio LaBoca

One in a series, this poster’s design was influenced by Polish and Czech posters of the 60s and 70s. The designs are rather reminiscent of a series of 1966 avant garde art buttons currently housed at the Busy Beaver Button Museum:

Art in America Nov/Dec 1966 about avant garde buttons from Park Place Gallery in New York.

Scot Bendall, the art director on the project, compared designing the “Black Swan” posters “to creating a record sleeve“. We say he should’ve taken that concept of branded merch further and created a set of avant garde “Black Swan” buttons. Maybe for the DVD release?

Want to create your own custom buttons? Go to busybeaver.net.

Martin Luther King Day Buttons Up

Next week commemorates Martin Luther King Day, and this rare campaign button was made right before his assassination in 1968.  It’s a provocative time capsule.

See the original pin on Hake’s website here.

Historic Grassroots Button

“Whip Inflation Now (WIN) was an attempt to spur a grassroots movement to combat inflation, by encouraging personal savings and disciplined spending habits in combination with public measures, urged by U.S. President Gerald Ford.  People who supported the mandatory and voluntary measures were encouraged to wear “WIN” buttons… but the idea itself is nowadays viewed as, well, kind of foolish:”WIN” buttons immediately became objects of ridicule; skeptics wore the buttons upside down, explaining that “NIM” stood for “No Immediate Miracles,” or “Nonstop Inflation Merry-go-round,” or “Need Immediate Money.”  Click here for the complete article.

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Pope Pin-backs 1979

Pope Pin-backs from 1979

There’s a collection of nine vintage Pope buttons for sale on Craigs List Illinois!  According to the post, the commemorative pin-backs range in size from 2.5-inches to 5-inches in diameter.  Since the Pope visited Chicago in 1979, it’s possible these were produced by Parisian Novelty on the south-side.  There’s a ton of papal buttons on eBay too.

The buttons must be pope-ular.

Make your own custom buttons at www.busybeaver.net