Button, Organizational
Object number2017.97.13
Date2011
MediumPlastic; Paper; Ink; Metal
Credit LineGIft of the Graphic Communications Conference-International Brotherhood of Teamster's Local 24M
DescriptionCircular pinback button. Plastic front has white background with bust portrait photographic images of two men surrounded by red printed text. Reverse is shiny silver metal with pinback across top center. DimensionsDiameter x Depth: 2.5 x 0.25 in. (6.4 x 0.6 cm)InscriptionsFront has red printed text around perimeter, clockwise from top: "HOFFA / 2011 / HERRERA / 2011".
MarksProper left side has black printed text "R / ... / UNION GCIU LABEL / ... / 600-M"; some of the text is illegible.
Historical NotesPart of a collection from Local 24 of the Graphic Communications Conference-International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The national union descends from the National Typographical Union which formed in 1852 and became the International Typographic Union in 1869. The union splintered in the late 1890s/early 1900s into several unions representing pressmen, bookbinders, stereotypers/electrotypers, lithographers, and platemakers, before slowly merging back together over the years. In 1983, the Graphic Communications International Union formed from the merging of the Int. Printing and Graphics Communication Union and the Graphic Arts International Union. Finally in 2005, the GCC union merged with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters to create the present-day organization. Local 24 started in the early 1900s as a group of Lithographers in the Pittsburgh area. In 2016, they downsized their offices and moved from Uptown to Three Mile Run, and in the process, donated their records and this collection of artifacts. Most of the material donated was made by the union such as buttons, posters, stickers, flat product sheets, and two printing sheets that show the change in printing technology from raised letters to flat sheets.
Related institution
Graphic Communications International Union
Related person
Ron Herrera
Related person
James Phillip Hoffa
(born 1941)
On View
Not on view
1988
Askew and Associates
Harry Ash
American Screen Printing and Advertising
Keystone Badge Company
