Button, Geraldine Ferraro, Sally Ride
name: label: Manufacturer
content: N. G. Slater Corp
label: Owner
content: Sally K. Ride
notes: label: Summary
content: This Geraldine Ferraro campaign button was owned by Dr. Sally K. Ride. Ferraro was Walter Mondale's running mate on the Democratic ticket in the 1984 presidential election, and had she been elected, she would have been America's first woman Vice President. During her acceptance speech at the party convention, Ferraro cited Sally Ride's achievement as the first American woman in space as evidence that "change is in the air." Ride saw Ferraro's nomination as inspirational, and said about the DNC speech, "I was as moved by that as many women had been by my flight into space. For the first time, I understood why it was such an emotional experience for so many people, to see me accomplish what I had, as a woman." Ride was a strong supporter of Ferraro and visited her at her congressional office a few months prior to the election, posing for photos with her and a t-shirt that Ride had given her bearing the vice-presidential insignia.
label: Summary
content: Sally Ride became the first American woman in space when she flew aboard STS-7 in 1983. Her second and last space mission was STS-41G in 1984. A physicist with a Ph.D., she joined the astronaut corps in 1978 as a part of the first class of astronauts recruited specifically for the Space Shuttle Program. Viewed as a leader in the NASA community, she served on the Rogers Commission after the Challenger disaster in 1986 as well as the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) in 2003. She also led the task force that produced a visionary strategic planning report in 1987 titled, “NASA Leadership and America’s Future in Space,” but known popularly as the Ride Report.
label: Summary
content: After she retired from NASA in 1987, Dr. Ride taught first at Stanford and later at the University of California, San Diego. Until her death in 2012, she was president and CEO of Sally Ride Science, a company that promoted science education.
label: Summary
content: Dr. Ride’s partner, Dr. Tam O’Shaughnessy, donated the button to the Museum in 2013.
place: label: Country of Origin
content: United States of America
setName: label: See more items in
content: National Air and Space Museum Collection
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Tam O'Shaughnessy
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Air and Space Museum
identifier: label: Inventory Number
content: A20140235000
objectType: label: Type
content: MEMORABILIA-People
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: CC0
physicalDescription: label: Materials
content: Ferrous Alloy
label: Materials
content: Paper
label: Materials
content: Plastic
label: Materials
content: Safety Pin Clasp
label: Dimensions
content: Overall: 0.6 × 8.9cm (1/4 × 3 1/2 in.)