He, too, is more of a generalist, with material dating back to George Washington’s presidency (like coat buttons from his inauguration). When asked what his favorite item in his collection is, Keefe said it’s like choosing a favorite child. Several decades later, he’s currently at 45 – with just James Madison left to hunt down before successfully completing his lifelong mission. A week later, he remembers finding a William McKinley button at an antique shop it was then that he decided he would find a button for every president. The former Albany City Court judge began collecting when he was just 12 years old after receiving a handful of free political buttons from a Barry Goldwater headquarters. Keefe piled multiple tables at the event with his collection. He said that the political collectibles could be purchased anywhere from 50 cents to $1,000. Within an hour of being at the day-long event, Kirk purchased a $300 pin bearing the face of trade unionist, political activist and presidential candidate Eugene Debs. “They got into a lot of trouble for this stuff, went to jail, got killed in strikes.” “I like the cause stuff, the left-wing stuff because a lot of times those causes that happened years ago are things that are normal today,” Kirk, who held ribbons from the Western Federation of Miners, said. He doesn’t purchase any items newer than 1948 and is particularly drawn to left-wing causes and radical labor unions. Kirk’s collection is vast, spanning from items relating to Abraham Lincoln to Franklin Roosevelt, who is one of his favorite presidents. Most of the hobbyists built their collections around a time or political figure. ![]() The niche event, which took place at the Holiday Inn Express & Suites off Wolf Road, was hosted by the New York chapter of the American Political Items Collectors.
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