The rarest buttons and merchandise are those from the James Cox candidacy of 1920 against Warren G. Harding. Cox supported the post-World War I internationalist policies of Woodrow Wilson, which were so unpopular that Cox's candidacy was deemed lost before it began. Consequently, very little money was spent. Today, Cox buttons sell for between $35,000 to $100,000, Wade said.

The idea of using buttons to support candidates began with George Washington. Originally, brass coat buttons commemorating important events were common in the military. Because Washington was a military man, he had several made for his first inauguration, the most famous of which read, "G.W. — Long Live the President." The next president to have buttons worn in support was Andrew Jackson, another military hero. A few years later, Harrison's campaign kicked off the widespread use of memorabilia.

The first "buttons" with real pictures were tintypes of Lincoln, available because of innovations in photography. These were metal pictures punched with a hole to be worn with a ribbon. The invention of the modern button by the Whitehead and Hoag Co. in 1894 made buttons as we know them today available for the 1896 campaign of William McKinley against William Jennings Bryan.

The Whitehead and Hoag design had four parts: a metal front and back, a piece of paper sporting the image, and a layer of celluloid over the top. The 1896 election proved a springboard, bringing the modern button into popular culture and making it the icon it is today. A faster, cheaper version was developed in the 1920s that was one piece of lithographed metal with only one or two colors. Thousands could be made at one time out of one sheet of stamped metal. The range of colors and designs possible with the four-piece version was more popular, however, and plastic replaced the celluloid in the 1960s, making them safer.

The Daughters of the Utah Pioneers Museum has two 1896 Bryan buttons and one of McKinley on display on the main floor. It also has four 1896 women's suffrage buttons featuring photographs of Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Anna Howard Shaw and Susan B. Anthony. They were donated by Zina Young Card, a leader of the Utah suffrage movement.

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