New York Makes You Paint Your Own Initials on Your Car

On April 25, 1901, Governor Benjamin Odell Jr. signed a bill making New York the first state in the country to require owners to register their motor vehicles. The law did not supply any plates. It told owners to post their own initials, at least three inches tall, on the back of the vehicle, in a conspicuous place. There was no state standard for material or color, so people used metal house letters on wood or leather, or just painted the letters straight onto the car. By May 2, seventeen New Yorkers had already applied for licenses, according to The New York Times. The initials scheme did not survive contact with more drivers: too many owners shared the same letters, so the legislature switched to state-assigned numbers in 1903, and New York did not start manufacturing and issuing its own plates until 1910.