Soy License Plates

Cascade County Soy License Plate, 1943-1944 [2018.024.2]

When the United States entered World War II, many domestic commodities were sacrificed to be used for war. Communities across the country donated their nylon stockings, their rubber, their clothing, their iron fences and cookware, and their scrap metal - including license plates.

In fact license plates became reborn from a new material during wartime. In an effort to conserve metal resources, a soybean based fiberboard was developed. The method of production was similar to modern MDF board production today - using heat and pressure to bind layers of material into a flat, usable shape (with soy fibers and glue or soy flour as a binder). License plates are required to be temporary and visible, not to withstand any sort of structural pressure or extreme temperatures, so the soy-based plates proved an adequate replacement.

Adequate that is, until an animal approached the plate and discovered its edibility.

"Turkeys Eat Car Tags: Petersburg, Ill. [...] Now turkeys as well as hungry dogs are eating the soy-plastic Illinois automobiles license plates." Printed in the Great Falls Tribune, February 7, 1945

Helena, [...] 'The hogs will get your 1944 auto license tags if you don't watch out,,' warned state Purchasing Agent R. A. Shaw today [...] the new type fabricated paper license plates, bonded with a glue, reportedly are relished by porkers in states where similar tags have been in use." Great Falls Tribune, December 18, 1943

Cascade County Soy License Plate, 1943-1944 [2020.058.1]

Montana issued soy license plates in 1944. States such as Illinois had used soy plates for two years prior. The two plates shown here had a previous life as Illinois 1943 plates, as seen faintly on the backside of the plates underneath green paint.

The History Museum is pleased to capture this brief moment in soy-based production history by housing two soy license plates in its collection.

-Ashleigh McCann, Collections Curator