Editing U.S. Route shield (section)

===Development===
[[File:Old style US 7 shield.jpg|thumb|left|100px|Original-style Vermont [[U.S. Route 7|US&nbsp;7]] shield with embossed features]]

The U.S. Route shield was developed during the first meeting of the [[Joint Board on Interstate Highways]], a panel appointed by [[Howard M. Gore]], the [[Secretary of Agriculture]], for the purposes of establishing a nationwide highway system. During the meeting, held at the [[Bureau of Public Roads]] offices in [[Washington, D.C.]], on April 20, 1925, board member Lou A. Boulay of Ohio was credited with suggesting the use of a [[escutcheon (heraldry)|shield]], inspired by that on the [[Great Seal of the United States]], with the letters "U.S.A." and the route number as a route marker.<ref name="FHWA planning">{{cite web |last = Weingroff |first = Richard F. |publisher = [[Federal Highway Administration]] |url = https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/numbers.cfm |title = From Names to Numbers: The Origins of the U.S. Numbered Highway System |work = Highway History |access-date = June 4, 2010 }}</ref> The board carried the motion to use a shield as the marker.

The Joint Board did not discuss the route shield further until the next day, April 21. At that time, E.W. James (Chief of the BPR's Division of Design and secretary of the Joint Board) and Frank F. Rogers of Michigan sketched a possible implementation of the shield. Rogers was also quoted as saying "Each state should have the right to insert the name of the state in the upper part of the shield to be adopted." James and Rogers presented their shield sketch to the board, and it was approved as a tentative design. Samples were sent for comment to all 48 states.<ref name="FHWA planning"/>

The shield was next discussed during the meeting of August 3. Upon motion by [[Cyrus Avery]] of Oklahoma, the board officially adopted the shield proposed at the April 21 meeting, having received general support from the states. A debate then ensued regarding the inclusion of the state name. W.O. Hotchkiss of Wisconsin, who was in favor of removing the state name, said "We want to emphasize the U.S., not the state. The shield and U.S. symbolized what we are marking."<ref name="FHWA planning"/> The Joint Board voted 10–9 to eliminate the state name.<ref name="FHWA planning"/>

Outside of the official meeting, members of the board discussed the state name issue further. Some members, particularly those from the South, felt it would be difficult to get local support for the U.S. Route System without it, because the states were required to pay for the signage. Some state legislatures had also legally bound state route numbers to certain corridors, and it was thought that including the state name might make the legislators more amenable to renumbering them to U.S. Route numbers. The following day, August 4, upon a motion of Robert M. Morton of California, the U.S. shield including the state name was approved without debate.<ref name="FHWA planning"/>