Does anyone know what Alabama State Route shields looked like back in the 50s? Were they the same design as the 1960 spec ones?
https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=11814.0
See reply #24
That's all I could find in a quick search.
This are just some observations, from looking though the shield gallery; I don't really have exact data. I should just look through the state maps year-by-year, but I don't know if they all had examples printed on them. Been meaning to check that out...
The white background with a black outline seems to date back to the 1940s. It looks like BPR-style "block" letters were used until 1960 or so, then the FHWA numbers we know today.
I can't quite figure when the diamond shape with "ALA" started and ended, nor an exact date for the current black background shield (going to guess around 1970, it seems a lot of different state shields started to change around that time).