Abstract
The Nevada Political Buttons Collection contains campaign buttons from 1972 to 2000. The collection includes buttons for political candidates at the federal, state, and local levels, including Bill Clinton and Al Gore for President of the United States, Harry Reid for United States Senate from Nevada, Bob Miller for governor of Nevada, and various candidates for Nevada's state legislature and other elected positions. The collection also contains buttons from some of Nevada's local political organizations, including Las Vegas, Nevada's branch of the Culinary Union, Nevada Fair Pay Coalition, and No Nuclear in Nevada.
Finding Aid PDF
Date
Extent
Related People/Corporations
Scope and Contents Note
The Nevada Political Buttons Collection contains campaign buttons from 1972 to 2000. The campaigns partially covered by this collection include: buttons from the Clinton and Gore campaigns during the 1996 and 2000 United States presidential elections; Bob Miller's candidacy for governor of Nevada; Harry Reid and Mary Gojack's candidacies for the US Senate; the Dina Titus, Genie Ohrenschall, Lori Lipman, Shelley Berkley, and Valerie Wiener campaigns for state legislative offices; and the Lonnie Hammargren campaign for Board of Regents for the Nevada System of Higher Education.
Other buttons come from political groups, including: Campaign for Tobacco Free Youth, Protect Nevada's Air and Water, No Nuclear Nevada, Clark County Classroom Teachers Association, National Education Association, Nevada Nurses Association, Women Legislatures' Lobby, and the League of Women Voters.
Labor unions are also represented in the buttons, including: Alliance for Workers Rights, Culinary Workers Union Local 226, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, Nevada Fair Pay Coalition, and the Service Employees International Union.
Some of the miscellaneous items are also political, including buttons that say "I Believe Anita Hill," "Democrats for Broccoli," and a Clinton and Gore towel. Other miscellaneous items include buttons for the Seventh and Eighth Annual Stewart Indian Museum Arts and Crafts Fair Pow-Wow, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas button, and a button for the Las Vegas House of Blues.
Access Note
Collection is open for research.
Publication Rights
Materials in this collection may be protected by copyrights and other rights. See Reproductions and Use on the UNLV Special Collections and Archives website for more information about reproductions and permissions to publish.
Arrangement
Materials are arranged alphabetically.
Biographical / Historical Note
The Nevada Political Buttons Collection contains campaign buttons used as promotional materials by political candidates and organizations to raise awareness for their campaigns and causes. The buttons, most of which represent Democratic candidates or positions, demonstrate the importance of spreading particular candidates' messages to voters. The buttons for the Clinton and Gore campaigns that came from outside political organizations, like the National Education Association, illustrate the political positions taken by prominent unions. Buttons for Harry Reid, who won US Senate campaigns in Nevada in 1987, 1992, 1998, 2004, and 2010, illustrate how politicians mobilized their constituents with slogans like "I'm in Harry Reid's Army." At the local level, buttons for labor unions, like the Alliance for Workers Rights, the Las Vegas, Nevada chapter of the Culinary Union, and the Equipo Solidaridad "Solidarity Team," show efforts at increasing organized labor's solidarity in Nevada.
Preferred Citation
Nevada Political Buttons Collection, 1972-2000. MS-00302. Special Collections, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.
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Acquisition Note
Materials were donated in 1989 by Hal Erickson; accession number 1989-006. Materials were also donated in 2002 by Cynthia Ortiz; accession number 2002-010. The collections were combined in 2014.
Processing Note
Material was processed by Special Collections staff in 1989 and 2002. In 2014, as part of a legacy finding aid conversion project, Lindsay Oden revised and enhanced the collection description to bring it into compliance with current professional standards. Subsequently Lindsay Oden entered the data into ArchivesSpace.