The backstory of how one pin-back button collector started a button business
Christen Carter (pictured on right) and Joel Carter (pictured on left) work together to make and display their pin buttons since Busy Beavers’ start in 1995. Photography by and courtesy of Christen Carter.
It all started with a Snoopy and Woodstock button. Christen Carter used her babysitting money as a 12-year-old to pursue an obsession that would turn into a collection with more than 25,000 pin buttons.
“I adored them and was taken with the design of the button,” said Carter, the owner and president of Busy Beaver Button Co. “I wouldn’t say that I was a collector at that point, but I did buy a few that I liked.”
Now 49, she and her older brother, Joel Carter, run Busy Beaver Company and museum, making and displaying their large variety of buttons in the heart of Logan Square.
Christen and her team have included more than just pin buttons in their business; they create mirrors, magnets, bottle openers and stickers. They also sell button-making kits and the “Button-O-Matic,” a coin-operated vending machine that dispenses 1-inch pin buttons.
It wasn’t until August 2010 that the official Busy Beaver Button Museum opened for business displaying 4,000 out of the 25,000 pin buttons. This collection includes buttons from every year since the pin-back button patent in 1896, as well as buttons from the inaugurations of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. But Carter still keeps her same beloved Snoopy and Woodstock pin buttons in the collection.
Carter uses a sustainable and environmentally-friendly approach when creating her buttons, by installing solar power and geothermal heating and cooling systems.
“I think [Christen] sees the limitless potential of the button,” Joel Carter said. “It's a blank canvas that can inspire and activate a movement and is physical tangible proof of an event both big or small.”
Growing up in Western New York state, Carter discovered punk music, which revealed another reason for her to collect pin buttons: to express her love for her favorite bands.
“I wanted people to know I was cool,” she said. “Or at least I was looking for other people who liked the same kind of music that I did.”
While attending college at Indiana University to study comparative literature and gender studies, Carter started a punk band named The Budget Girls with her best friend and played out of a garage, which provided her the opportunity to make buttons for the band.
“It’s more of a novelty band that my best friend and I did for fun,” Carter said. “It’s pretty naughty, but we had so much fun with it.”
The Budget Girls even had the chance to put out a few records and play with The Raincoats, a British experimental post-punk band. Punk music— and music, in general— played a big part in Carter’s growing up, as her mom and two older brothers both found interest in it.
“Our mom really liked The Beatles and other great stuff; consequently, music is pretty foundational for my brothers and me,” she said.
As director of operations, Joel assists his sister in running Busy Beaver, and thanks to what Christen calls his "natural collector's mentality," helps her grow their button collection.
“I started collecting coins and stamps very young,” Joel said. “My grandfather sold antiques and I've always liked old things even as a youngster.”
After initially creating the Busy Beaver Co. in 1995 and creating pin buttons for her punk band, Carter moved to Paris to study literary theory. She ended up leaving Paris and spent some time in London after a bandmate moved there to keep pursuing The Budget Girls.
“I was really curious and really wanted to be a part of bigger things than I felt were available to me in the small town where I grew up,” Carter said.
Finally, in 1998, Carter made her way to Chicago, where Joel and her other brother resided, and pursued opening the official Busy Beaver Co., which got its name from a math book Carter grew up with called “Busy Beavers.”
“Beavers are industrious creatures. Plus, I thought it was funny,” she said.
On Oct. 13, 2020, Carter and pin button collector Ted Hake published “Button Power” with Princeton Architectural Press, which celebrates 125 years of pin buttons and the stories they tell through history.
“I’ve sold more collectible buttons in my sixty-year career than anyone,” said Hake, who has been collecting pin buttons since high school in 1961. “However, working on ‘Button Power’ with Christen has certainly expanded my view and appreciation of buttons.”
Carter appreciates the impact that buttons can have in promoting social justice movements and has implemented this into her business model.
“Buttons have been a mainstay with social justice movements for over 100 years, they build community and try to make progress,” Carter says. “I think people with these types of values tend to be attracted to buttons. I’m no exception.”
