What do George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and Barack Obama all have in common that other U.S. Presidents don’t?

All had the honor of having their portrait on officially-issued license plates.

Presidential names have appeared often on license plates, mostly by virtue of states that displayed the name of the county in which each vehicle was registered, many U.S. counties having gotten their names from presidents.

However, it’s fairly rare for images of presidents to appear. Below is an overview of the National License Plate Portrait Gallery.

U.S. Inaugural License Plates of the 1950s

The tradition of Inaugural license plates began in 1933, when the District of Columbia made striking license plates for use on official vehicles in the inaugural parade for Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The special plates became a tradition for each Inauguration, and their use expanded from official vehicles to special license plates that could be registered to VIPs (and later to anyone who cared to order one, anywhere in the United States) for a short period surrounding the event.

Dwight D. Eisenhower’s two inaugurations in the 1950s had an extra unique characteristic: these were the only years where the faces of the president and vice president were featured.

The 1953 issue was the first instance of a living person depicted on a license plate, with stickers of each man’s portrait applied to the plates. A similar scheme was used for the second Eisenhower-Nixon term, but Ike and Dick look a bit more weary and less smiley after four years in office.

These plates have the added bonus of being two-fers: Vice President Richard Nixon of course went on to serve as president himself, giving us two U.S. Presidents on one plate. Nixon will probably forever be the only president pictured on a license plate before becoming president.

South Dakota: the Rushmore gang

South Dakota has the distinction of being the only state to picture four U.S. Presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. It does so indirectly, through its depiction of its most famous tourist site, Wall Drug Mt. Rushmore.

An image of Mt. Rushmore first appeared on South Dakota’s 1952 license plates, as a sticker, and every general issue license plate since has depicted the mountain and the faces of the four presidents, although increasingly obscured by the registration numbers as the years progressed.

North Dakota: Teddy Roosevelt

TR spent some of his most formative years in the badlands of North Dakota, in what would become Theodore Roosevelt National Park. His impact on the state was honored by North Dakota’s 1980s issue, which included him in a collage of state images, including the capitol building.

Because of his inclusion on Mt. Rushmore, one of Teddy Roosevelt’s more obscure claims to fame is being honored on the license plates of BOTH Dakotas.

Illinois: Land of Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln, like Teddy Roosevelt, has also been pictured on the license plates of two states. After half a century on South Dakota’s license plates, Lincoln got his picture added to Illinois bumpers.

Lincoln was born in Kentucky and spent his early years in Indiana, but came of age and prominence in Illinois. The state has honored its adopted son on its license plates with the “Land of Lincoln” slogan since 1954. That year, when the state legislature authorized the use of the slogan, it also permitted the inclusion of Lincoln’s silhouette. It was skipped on the final design, however, due to cost: adding the graphic would increase the size of the plate, which in turn would increase the cost of materials and mailing up to an additional quarter-million dollars.

It took almost a half century, until the 2001 general issue, for Honest Abe’s likeness to finally have a place on Illinois standard-issue license plates. However, he had to endure the indignity of having numbers stamped over most of his face on most plates.

The 2018 redesign gave him a more detailed and prominent position, although only half of his face made it into the design, and even then, registration numbers are often embossed over that half. Abe was posed in front of one of his proudest legacies, the Willis Tower.

Illinois: Also Land of Obama

For a brief period, Illinois was the only state ever to have two license plate designs on the road concurrently picturing two different presidents.

In early 2009, Barack Obama was inaugurated as president, vacating his position representing Illinois in the United States Senate. For two months, Illinois motorists could register their vehicles with license plates honoring Obama through the Special Event license plates program, a quirky feature of Illinois law that allows organizations to create limited-use plates.

For two months, portraits of the 16th and 44th presidents could be seen side-by-side on the roads of the Midwest.

Washington State: who else?

Here in Washington state, the only state named after a president, the nation’s father has never appeared directly on a license plate.

Indirectly, George Washington‘s portrait has appeared on vehicle licensing, through stickers, and even then indirectly because the stickers were actually depicting the state seal, which includes Washington’s likeness.

During the metal shortage years of the 1940s and 1950s, when windshield stickers were used to revalidate metal plates, there were three designs that included the state seal, with Washington’s portrait: 1943, 1946, and 1952.

Later on, the state seal was used on certain stickers for exempt and fleet vehicles. A state exempt sticker was used in the 1970s and 1980s on city, county, and state government vehicles, and a consul exempt sticker is used in some limited cases.

There was one exception where George Washington’s image made it onto license plates by itself. In the early 1970s, an oddball large exempt sticker was briefly used on government vehicles that included a crude side portrait of Washington.

All in all, Washington state has given very little love to its namesake.

Virginia: Washington

Virginia’s alphabetical neighbor’s namesake was featured on the license plates of the Old Dominion twice. Both times for bicentennials.

Like many states, Virginia commemorated the United States’ bicentennial in 1976 on its license plates. George Washington’s famous silhouette was featured in the middle, flanked by 13 stars representing the original colonies.

At the end of the 20th century, one of Virginia’s many special-design optional issues marked the 200-year anniversary of George Washington’s death with a much more detailed portrait of the first president and an image of his Mount Vernon estate.

California: Reagan

California came close to honoring its former governor, Ronald Reagan, on a special license plate to support the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

Approved by the legislature and signed into law by Governor Gray Davis in 1999, the plate passed the initial hurdles to become reality. However, not enough people signed up: California requires at least 7,500 people to apply for a special issue license plate before any are issued. Lack of interest caused the plate to fizzle out: by late 2001, only 764 applications had been made, according to the Sacramento Bee (November 26, 2001).

None were ever issued, but some samples and prototypes do exist.