our The Society of Automotive Historians, Inc. Issue 230 September-October 2007 7 A History of U.S. License Plates By Albert Mroz hf n vehicles began chugging, whirring and clanging around Ameri ca www.autohistory.org over a centwy ago, the need to have some kind of identification W system became apparent almost immediately. The government had to get in on the goods; there were taxes and fees to be collected and proof of Inside ownership to be established especially in case of theft or accident. The very first vehicle li cense plates appeared as early as 1899 in the cities Ed itorial Comment 2 of Illinois. The first license plates were issued by local government . ew York State was the first to issue state registration, beginning in May of 1901. There the first system consisted only of the vehicle owner's initials. At a time when there President's Perspective 3 were only a handful of vehicles perhaps this made sense, but it soon became impossible to continue with such oversimplification. SAH News 5 The first "plates" were actually made of leather with numbers that were cut out of light sheet metal and attached to the surface. This method soon became plagued with duplicati on, and in by 1903 it was superseded by a sequential "A Window on the World, 6 numerical system. By 1910 there were 100,000 motor vehicles registered in ew The American Car Abroad" York State alone. So call ed "porcelain" plates refer to porcelainized enamel that was fu sed Book Reviews 10 to a steel base at high temperatures. Early "kit plates" consisted of a metal base with grooves at top and bottom where porcelain squares were attached. How­ ever, both porcelain and metal license plates were expensive to fabricate, so Letters 14 states eventually turned to prison labor for their manufacture. For further savings, metal squares were attached to the top rim of license plate before the advent of Billboard 15 self-adhesive stickers bearing the year and month of registration. During World Wa r II , shortages in metals prompted states to adopt paper windshield stickers for displaying new registrations. Because so many license plates were being removed from circulation once vehicles were retired due to age or accident, the notion of collecting license plates finally took hold as a formal hobby. License plate collecting has similarities to stamp coll ecting; both are issued by the government to denote payment for an organized service. Both may have commemorative information such as state his­ toiy or slogans and both vary widely in color whil e remaining closely defined in terms of ize and application. While stamp coll ecting began in the rnid-1800s when stamps were first issued, it wasn't until a century later that license plate collecting caught on with people, not all of them necessarily automotive enthusiasts. In 1954 psychologist Dr. Cecil George of Massachusetts began to give the completely unorganized and informal hobby of license plate collecting seri ous consideration after reading an account of a man who had a display in ew Hampshire. Dr. George contacted the man, who turned out to be postmaster Asa Colby of Rumney Depot. After starting a successful newsletter, the two of them founded the Automobile License continued on page 4 Up a Busy River Boat traffic on the Rh ine was bahn was disappointing-there were constant with barge , cruise ships and actuall y speed limits on the section even a couple of paddlewheelers. we were on and I didn't get to see a At one lock I had to laugh and wonder Porsche go ripping by. Yet h re also I as two barges, each cany ing identical was amazed. The pavement here and loads of sand passed each other going on secondary roads was in excell ent in opposite directions. On both' sides of shape, which I assumed was a result the river trains, both passenger and of fewer and smaller trucks on the freight, seem d to go by every few roads and the recycling of old tir minutes. In the citie buses and trolleys into pavement material. Thomas S. Jakups, Editor were plentiful and full. Along the plazas Sure there were sti ll plenty of hundreds of parked bikes could be cars and our bus got stuck once in his summer at the not so tender found, and I saw couples and families, ru h hour congestion, but the trans­ age of 55 I traveled to Europe old and young, whizzing by on dedicat­ portation system seemed to be in bal­ T fo r the first time. My wife, Judy, ed bike lanes. I even have a photo ance, much more effi cient than ours actually dared me to spend two summer taken in An1sterdam of a drag queen, in the nited States. weeks away from a car show or a golf complete in black mini-dress and Europe has an advantage in that course. Well , I managed to do this and makeup, securely locking his bike to a its multimodal transportation infra­ am 1ich r fo r the expetience. light stanchion one Sunday afternoon. structure ha been in place for cen­ The actual trip was a boat cruise While in An1sterdam, and in turies while in the .S. we'v disman­ on the Rhine River from Basel to Cologne, I checked out the train sta­ tled mu ch of ours. And now we are Antwerp. There were of cour e majestic tions. They were expansive, clean and paying a high price in pollution, driv­ castles and beautifully preserved cities, well -lit. The police spoke excell ent er stress and lost productivity. We but what reall y impressed me was tl1 English and were happy to give direc­ know what's broke; do we have the transpoitation system in Germany, The ti ons and answer questions. will to fix it? etherlands and Belgium. My first exposure to the Auto- - Tomjakups QJ.J~I1~ , ... J Issue 230 Se ptember-October 2007 Officers Publications Committee SAH Journal (ISSN 1057-1973) Michael L. Berger President Christopher C. Foster is published six times a year by the Darwyn H. Lumley Vice President Thomas S. Jakups Society of Automotive Historians, Inc. Susan S. Davis Secretary Beverly Rae Kimes Christopher C. Foster Treasurer Michael Lamm Subscription is by membership Taylor Vinson in the Society. Board of Directors Through October 2007 Membership dues are $40 per year. Michael Bromley Paul N. Lashbrook Past Editors Send dues, membership inquiries Stanton A. Lyman Richard B. Brigham and changes of address to Joseph S. Freeman, ex officio Issues 1-29 Sept. 1969-(undated) 1973 Society of Automotive Historians, Inc. Through October 2008 C. Marshall Naul 1102 Long Cove Road John A. Marino Arthur W. Jones 30-50 July 1973- Dec. 1976 Cales Ferry, CT 06335-1812 USA Joseph R. Malaney John Peckham Through October 2009 51 - 59 Feb. 1977 -July 1978 ©2007 Robert R. Ebert J. Douglas Leighton The Society of Automotive Historians, Inc. Steve Wilson Walter Cosden 60-87 Nov. 1978-Dec. 1983 Find the Society of Automotive Historians SAH Journal Richard B. Brigham on the web at www.autohistory.org. Thomas S. Jakups, Editor, Adv. Mgr. 88-117 Jan.jFeb. 1983-Nov.jDec. 1988 37 Wyndwood Road Christopher C. Foster West Hartford, CT 06107 USA 118-157 Jan.jFeb. 1989-JulyjAug. 1995 Copy Deadline for Journa/231 860-233-5973 Fax860-232- 0468 October 31st journal@a utohistory.o rg Samuel V. Fiorani [email protected] 158- 194 Sept.jOct. 1995-Sept.jOct. 2001 2 SAH Jo urnal No. 230 Remembering the '69 Lacunas moti ve history. They are presented (5) In the Driver's Seat: The below alphabetically by title, with a Automobile in American Literature brief explanation of the reason for and Popular Culture, by Cynthia their inclusion. Golomb Dettelbach (Greenwood (1) Americans on the Road: Press, 1976) . While the early years of ~ From Autocamp to Motel, 19 10-1945, motoring produced countless short by Warren James Belasco (MIT Press, stories and novels written about auto­ 1979). During the first half of the 20th mobiles, or in wl1ich cars play an inte­ centUJy, auto-related recreational pur­ gral role in the plot (like The Great suits mushroomed, creating industries Gatsby), it was not until Dettelbach's of their own and significant coverage 1976 small volume that we had a Michael l. Berger, President in the mass-circulation magazines of scholarly, book-length, analytical study the day. Yet, it was not until Belasco's of the automobi le in literature. emember the '69 Lacunas? work th at we had a scholarly, book­ (6) Taking the Wh eel: Women Probably not, since Lacuna length study of a key element of and the Coming of the Motor Age, by R never was an automotive vacation motoring. Virginia Scharff (Free Press, 1991). At a marque (at least to the best of my (2) Auto Mechanics: Technology time when even the best comprehen­ knowledge). Instead, it's the type of and Expertise in Twentieth-Century sive automotive histori es lumped men, word employed by colleagues in my America, by Kevin L. Borg Qohns women and children together in terms other profession. In simplest terms, a Hopkins University Press, 2007). While of the car's impact on everyda y life, "lacuna" is a gap or missing pan , we have had numerous studies of auto­ Scharff was the first to tease out the often used in reference to a manu­ moti ve unions and workers "on the uniqueness of the fen1inine experience script. So, in the context of this col­ Line," Borg's book is a pionee1ing one in the early years of motoring.