Authentic, historic, state-named US route shields

[usends]

Imagine making a historic state-named US route shield for each state that US 1 passes through.  That's 15 states, so 15 different shields. 
Then do the same thing for US 2, and US 3, and so on, for all of the US routes.
How many shields would you have to make?

The answer: over 900.
And Michael Summa has done exactly that.
You can view them all on usends.com; they are featured on each of the corresponding route pages.

One of the reasons Michael expressed for taking on this project was his frustration with the "one size fits all" ersatz historic shields that get posted all over the internet.  His desire was to illustrate how the shields actually looked back in the day.  Before the MUTCD was widely adopted, there were significant differences between the various states' versions of the US route shield in terms of design, shape, size, color, font, etc.  These differences become quite apparent when viewing the shields side-by-side.  Just a few examples:
https://www.usends.com/30.html
https://www.usends.com/70.html
https://www.usends.com/202.html

[ClassicHasClass]

Dale, I was trying to find your 6N but it doesn't seem listed?

[usends]

Dale, I was trying to find your 6N but it doesn't seem listed?

That's correct.  Years ago I did attempt to cover directionally-suffixed routes, alternate routes, etc. but I quickly realized those kinds of designations were really outside the scope of the site.

[Mapmikey]

US 58 in Tennessee had a state name shield decades ago along State St in Bristol.

This comes from the Apr 1954 Virginia Highway Bulletin:

[hbelkins]

US 58 in Tennessee had a state name shield decades ago along State St in Bristol.

This comes from the Apr 1954 Virginia Highway Bulletin:

That is really interesting. Posted on a classic Virginia white wooden post. Must have been the south side of State Street.

[Eth]

One of the reasons Michael expressed for taking on this project was his frustration with the "one size fits all" ersatz historic shields that get posted all over the internet.  His desire was to illustrate how the shields actually looked back in the day.  Before the MUTCD was widely adopted, there were significant differences between the various states' versions of the US route shield in terms of design, shape, size, color, font, etc.  These differences become quite apparent when viewing the shields side-by-side.  Just a few examples:
https://www.usends.com/30.html
https://www.usends.com/70.html
https://www.usends.com/202.html

One of the things that stood out immediately to me was that in Georgia apparently the horizontal dividing line often didn't extend all the way to the edge of the shield (see 11, 19, 41, 84, 319).

[usends]

US 58 in Tennessee had a state name shield decades ago along State St in Bristol.

Other than running along the boundary line in Bristol, did US 58 enter TN at all prior to the 1980s?

[Mapmikey]

US 58 in Tennessee had a state name shield decades ago along State St in Bristol.

Other than running along the boundary line in Bristol, did US 58 enter TN at all prior to the 1980s?

From 1952-66, US 58 Eastbound officially used State St east to 9th St (now Volunteer Pkwy), then south into Tennessee to Shelby St east to 7th St north which turns into Piedmont at State St.

Have not run into any pictures showing how this was posted in the field.

[hbelkins]

US 58 in Tennessee had a state name shield decades ago along State St in Bristol.

Other than running along the boundary line in Bristol, did US 58 enter TN at all prior to the 1980s?

From 1952-66, US 58 Eastbound officially used State St east to 9th St (now Volunteer Pkwy), then south into Tennessee to Shelby St east to 7th St north which turns into Piedmont at State St.

Have not run into any pictures showing how this was posted in the field.

That sounds a bit like the routing US 421 took prior to a rerouting a few years ago.

[Max Rockatansky]

I like how the graphics were incorporated into the endpoint pages, I thought it was a nice touch.

[Avalanchez71]

US 58 in Tennessee had a state name shield decades ago along State St in Bristol.

Other than running along the boundary line in Bristol, did US 58 enter TN at all prior to the 1980s?

From 1952-66, US 58 Eastbound officially used State St east to 9th St (now Volunteer Pkwy), then south into Tennessee to Shelby St east to 7th St north which turns into Piedmont at State St.

Have not run into any pictures showing how this was posted in the field.

That sounds a bit like the routing US 421 took prior to a rerouting a few years ago.

Looks like US 58 has made it's return back to Tennessee.