“ERA YES.”
“Stop the Pipeline.”
“Dissent is Patriotic.”
Throughout history, political and social movements have utilized buttons as a way to voice their agendas. Easily worn and displayed, buttons effectively distribute a variety of messages to a mass audience. A current exhibition at Harvard Kennedy School called “Political Buttons” features buttons collected from the 1960s, ranging from workers rights to political campaigns.
Buttons advocating for reproductive and equal rights for women from the 1980s.
A button protesting the beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles on March 3rd, 1991.
“The collection started with a generous donation by Steven Rothstein in 2015, comprising just over 1,600 buttons,” said Corinne Wolfson, the Digital Collections Librarian at the Harvard Kennedy School and curator of the exhibition. “These buttons were from Rothstein’s personal family collection. Once they were donated, staff at HKS wanted to expand on the idea.”
Wolfson explained that when she started at HKS in January of 2016 during the presidential election, the Democratic and Republican parties were creating attack buttons. “[I wanted to] expand the collection to include buttons from current campaigns. Since then, every national election cycle, I have reached out to the political campaigns of candidates running for Senate, House, governor, and the presidency. In the three election cycles we’ve done this, we’ve received dozens of buttons from across the country.”
A map of various campaign buttons from different election cycles and the states they originated from.
“We’ve also continued to receive donations of political button collections. I get contacted by donors on a regular basis these days, from individuals who held onto the buttons they personally wore, to collectors who have curated a large collection of buttons,” Wolfson said. “We’re happy to grow our collection to reflect the wide range of topics the buttons can cover.”
A button advocating for bussing during the Civil Rights Movement and Brown v. Board of Education case in the 1970s.
A button advocating for peace in Central America and South Africa in April 1987.
An Anti-Vietnam War button from 1972.
As stated on the Political Buttons page on the Harvard Kennedy School website, their collection has grown to over “1,500 political buttons from the 20th and 21st centuries, representing U.S. political campaigns at every level, ballot initiatives, social issues and movements, and political demonstrations.” The collection demonstrates just how broadly different buttons can be used. With an origin dating back to the 1896 campaign buttons of Abraham Lincoln and other candidates, political buttons have been an effective measure to gain a campaign or cause recognition.
“I suppose that buttons are an effective way of signifying how you stand on a particular topic, but not necessarily on spreading your beliefs and/or educating people,” said First-Year Alyssia Wiesenbauer ’26. “I don’t expect people to come up to me and ask more about my beliefs, but I do think that they will gain a bit of an understanding of who I am by looking at my buttons,” she explained.
Leon Wagner, a trans-activist, wearing multiple buttons on his hat
With newer methods of sharing information and political agendas, the popularity of buttons has fluctuated. Yet they still can be a significant way to impact a campaign or cause, as voiced by Elizabeth King from TIME Magazine. “Political buttons still pack a major punch in only a few inches of circular space today, and serve as a reflection of the political climate,” she wrote.
With numerous modern forms of political campaigning, buttons may not be the most recognizable part of a movement in the present day. Still, the HKS collection has gained a lot of popularity around Harvard due to the interest the community has in politics and social justice. “Many of our students, faculty, and staff are politically engaged, whether they’re avid news readers, volunteers for political campaigns, members of community organizations, or participants in social movements,” Wolfson said.
Furthermore, the collection can also be utilized for education, social or political representation, or a Sunday past-time. We’ve seen a lot of enthusiasm for the collection within the Harvard community and beyond—whether someone is learning about the history of a political cause, excited to see a candidate they love represented in the collection, or even laughing at a particularly snarky button.”
An anti-nuclear war button from 1978.
Two buttons depicting politicians: on the left, a pro-Barack Obama campaign button in 2012 from Illinois, and on the right, a 1974 Nixon button exclaiming “INOPERATIVE.”
A button against the United State’s invasion of Grenada, ordered by Ronald Reagan in 1983.
A button from the 1974 Civil Rights movement march in Boston.
Wolfson explained that political buttons provide social movements with a visual way to express their cause or support a candidate. “They help to build both visibility and solidarity—showing the world your support for the candidate or cause, and building connections with those who support them, too. Buttons (and stickers) are tangible evidence of the ways in which both the makers and their wearers engage with the wider world.”
People also enjoy wearing the buttons because it gives them an opportunity to share the causes or campaigns that they support and want those around them to recognize. “I would say that I wear buttons because they are an outward expression of the things that I believe in. While I don’t have many, the ones that I do have reflect what is most important to me,” Wiesenbauer said.
A button advocating against draft laws and the at time age 21 voting requirement.
A button from the Coalition of Labor Union Women from the 1970s fighting for women’s rights.
A button from the Anti-Apartheid movement calling for the boycott of Shell Oil.
Harvard Kennedy School hopes that the collection can be used to help teach those learning about political history and aid researchers in their work. “We hope the digitized images and original source material of these buttons will be used for educational purposes in the fields of politics, government, U.S. and world history, sociology and beyond. We also hope researchers will take advantage of them for scholarship around 20th-century politics, electioneering, political Americana, and social, political, and cultural issues and movements of the 20th century,” they state.
Those who’d like to see the archive can go to the Harvard Kennedy School, or visit one of the two digital exhibits, “Redefining the Table: Diversifying US Elections” and “Decades of Resistance: Political Movement Pins.”
Sophia Mora-Ortega ’26 (sophiamoraortega@college.harvard.edu) loves to push buttons.
Layla Chaaraoui ’26 (laylachaaraoui@college.harvard.edu) favorite button is “I am a Shameless Agitator.”
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