Nixon eats lettuce: The story behind coveted buttons at the DNC

PHILADELPHIA — There are thousands of political buttons at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia but one man in the crowd may have more than anyone else.

John Olsen is affectionately known as “Dr. Vote” among hobbyists who collect political buttons. Clad in a red vest covered in buttons, Olsen proudly proclaims his collection of nonpartisan political buttons as the largest in the country.

Olsen has spent the week in the lower level of the Philadelphia Convention Center monitoring tables of buttons for sale by a fellow collector.

One by one, attendees at this year’s PoliticalFest -- an amusement park for political junkies where you can sit in the Oval Office, tour a replica of Air Force One and dress up as Betsy Ross to pose for photos -- came to Olsen’s area to look at collectibles.

Olsen’s button collection actually started with aspirations of a congressional internship. Olsen missed out on the opportunity but landed a chance to work with Common Cause, where he met someone who introduced him to political memorabilia.

“During an hour lunch break, she took me to the political memorabilia store in Union Station and it was glorious,” Olsen said.

His collection started when that friend gave him two audio tapes of speeches by Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Olsen was so passionate about the store, he applied for a job there. Just a few weeks later, the store hired another button enthusiast whose father was president of the American Political Items Collectors.

He started immediately collecting buttons before the 1992 presidential election with a sampling of buttons made for, at the time, Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton.

Olsen transitioned into nonpartisan “Get out the vote” buttons, and 25 years later he has the largest collection of memorabilia aimed at getting people to the polls, including 2,000 buttons.

Olsen says each year, fellow collectors meet during the political cycle, but he was disappointed that this year’s meetings came before the political conventions, narrowing the amount of trades.

When you have thousands of pieces of memorabilia it’s hard to pick a favorite, but Olsen says his favorite piece isn’t actually a button but a “One man, one vote” flag that a protester carried over the Edmund Pettus Bridge during the Bloody Sunday march in Selma, Alabama in 1965. He’s not sure how many of them exist.

The oldest nonpartisan vote button he has is from 1898, just two years after the celluloid button was invented. It reads, “No boss controls my vote”; he believes it comes from Philadelphia or New York. And he also just picked up a Philadelphia League of Women Voters button from the 1920s.

The hunt for presidential buttons is never-ending for collectors. Olsen says there are well over 5,000 buttons just for President Barack Obama.

He says not many people are passionate about nonpartisan vote buttons because they don’t support a candidate and they are often thrown out, making collecting difficult.

“The most prized things we collect isn’t the memorabilia, it’s the friendships. We’re all just here to preserve political history,” Olsen said. “Save those signs on the floor of the convention. They’re from a specific moment, and if you can keep it in good condition it will be valuable.”

See some of the buttons available for purchase in Philadelphia from collector Mark Evans below:

Cox Media Group