2.75” tall with covered metal back, vertical fixed pin and circular Whitehead & Hoag incised logo, not the open back version by St. Louis Button Co. which is the important distinction as we will explain. We offered this same button in Auction 210, but withdrew it in deference to opinions on Facebook claiming the button was issued by a St. Louis high school. We acknowledge the bronc design was and is used by Roosevelt High School in St. Louis. We also acknowledge there are small 7/8” to 1” buttons showing the same bronc dated for 1935 and 1936. There also exists a very similar “Roosevelt” 2.75” oval bronc design. However, all three of these buttons have open backs with the back paper of St. Louis Button Co., the hometown company of the high school. In the case of the St. Louis 2.75” oval, compared to the W&H oval we offer here, there are two additional differences besides W&H being some 1500 miles away from St. Louis. The W&H design has a great deal more white outlining on the rider and bronc image compared to the St. Louis example and the W&H example has rounded corners on all letters compared to squared off corners on the St. Louis example, a distinctly different typeface. These three distinctions support the eminently informed opinion of the APIC’s foremost (now deceased) F.D.R. specialist Joe Jacobs, a famous Chicago labor relations lawyer and a man who dealt in facts. The following information was learned while Hake’s offered one of the 2.75” ovals in Auction #187, lot 594. We amended our description at the time to reflect Joe’s knowledge of the design, but unfortunately the information was forgotten in the ensuing eight years and just recently re-discovered. In 2006, Hake’s was given the following information by an APIC member who knew Joe well which caused us to amend on-line the Auction #187 description. In addition, our current consignor of this item years ago was given the same information about Joe’s search for this button by early APIC members Paul Weinrich and Webster Haven (both deceased). The three different sources all related that Joe considered this 2.75” W&H oval to be an F.D.R. 1940 campaign button. Joe said it was a take-off of the small 1940 button issued for the Wyoming Republican candidate that reads “Simpson For Senator.” Joe never acquired the F.D.R. button for his collection. Joe lived through the F.D.R. years and had unparalleled knowledge of F.D.R. campaign items. Joe’s certainty and quest for this rare W&H produced button gives us every confidence to offer it as an authentic 1940 F.D.R. campaign button. This is a near mint example, almost totally free of surface wear, displaying glossy Mint.