MONTICELLO - When young Chuck Hippler was exploring the attic of his grandparents' house, he discovered a few old campaign buttons. His favorite was a button carrying a photograph of Theodore Roosevelt and his running mate, Charles W. Fairbanks, who won the 1904 election.

The button piqued Hippler's interest in political items.

"The celluloid buttons first appeared in 1896. They have celluloid covers on them," Hippler said. "One of the first celluloid buttons was for (William Jennings) Bryan. But there were buttons with George Washington on them."

Hippler really got hooked on collecting political campaign items in 1968, after he was a witness to one of the most tumultuous presidential nominating conventions in U.S. history.

Hippler, then news director at radio station WSOY, saw thousands of protesters gathered in Chicago's Grant Park during the Democratic convention, facing off against police officers and National Guardsmen decked out in full riot gear. He even caught a whiff of tear gas.

The purpose of many of the protesters was to support anti-war candidate Eugene McCarthy, and there were plenty of buttons, posters, hats and other items in evidence that proclaimed the virtues of Hubert Humphrey, McCarthy and even Robert Kennedy, who had been assassinated two months earlier. The successful campaign of Republican Richard M. Nixon in the following months benefited from the chaos in Chicago.

Hippler, who has accumulated thousands of campaign items in the past 40 years, has many buttons from the Nixon-Humphrey campaign, the John F. Kennedy-Nixon race in 1960 and most of the presidential contests of the 20th century.

In addition to tiny lapel buttons worn by supporters in the times of Woodrow Wilson and Calvin Coolidge, Hippler has a wide range of larger, more visible items that largely have been kept hidden in drawers or shoeboxes.

"Now most people don't wear buttons unless they're at a rally or convention," Hippler said.

There is another reason buttons may be less visible in recent years.

"You used to get them for free," Hippler said. "Now you have to pay for them."

A "Viva Kennedy" button reminds Hippler that there was a time when buttons would be targeted to ethnic groups. "They would issue 50 different buttons in 50 different languages."

Part of Hippler's collection, organized in frames by candidate or theme, was on display in October at Monticello's Allerton Library.

Hippler said the wide variety of campaign items exist because some are produced by the national campaign while others are made by local organizations, sometimes for a specific campaign stop.

President Dwight Eisenhower was especially popular with button-makers. "It's amazing how many buttons say 'I Like Ike,' " Hippler said. "I must have 40 or 50 buttons that say that."

There are many ways to find election items, including national and regional shows of American Political Items Collectors, at which collectors sell and trade.

Mark D. Evans, membership director for the group, said there are about 2,000 members, including former President Bill Clinton.

Evans said nobody knows everything that has been made.

"There are tens of thousands of different items produced by thousands of different manufacturers, dating back to Washington's inauguration," he said. "We are constantly seeing unknown items, which is very thrilling when you collect this material."

Evans said campaign items tell the story of the candidates and issues.

"Now there are buttons for Joe the Plumber," Evans said. "Years from now, that issue will be kept alive because some of those buttons will be bought and sold."

The story of campaigns past is marked by negative feelings and humor. Hippler owns a number of anti-Nixon buttons, stamped with slogans such as: "No more years," "Dump Nixon," with a picture of a dump truck, and "Nixon has a staff infection," referring to his many aides indicted for Watergate-related crimes.

Hippler, who interviewed John F. Kennedy and Nixon in Decatur during the 1960 campaign, was hired as a radio reporter in 1957 and soon promoted to news director. In 1969, he began working in public affairs for Caterpillar Inc., from which he retired.

Hippler used to refer to his wish list, but after four decades, there are not too many items remaining on it. But the missing items are what make the hobby exciting.

"The fun is in the searching," Hippler said. "You're always looking for something different."

hfreeman@herald-review.com|421-6985