Indiana State Road signs over the last 100 years

I want to take a closer look at the mid-1950s image from Nashville, Indiana, that I shared last week. I used Photoshop to upscale that image to focus on the state highway signs. This was the style of sign Indiana used from the first days of its state highway system — the state outline with the road number inside. At first, they were painted on utility poles. I feel sure that those signs weren’t very hardy thanks to weather. I have no photos from those days, but I did find this drawing of what they looked like on the 1920 map issued by the Department of Highways. This practice ended in 1926, when the state switched to embossed metal signs. That’s whey they also stopped including the words “State Road” and “Ind.” I am curious to know whether the state ever used iron for these signs. According to Richard Simpson on his Indiana Transportation History blog, Indiana started phasing in square signs with no state outline in the 1940s. Given the mid-50s image from Nashville with the old…