The Postal Service will release its Route 66 stamps on Tuesday, May 5, during the National Postal Forum in Phoenix.
The stamps celebrate the 100th anniversary of the legendary highway and ongoing efforts to preserve the uniquely American landmark.
Established on Nov. 11, 1926, Route 66 originally stretched about 2,400 miles from Chicago to Los Angeles.
When first mapped, it connected a patchwork of existing roads, mostly unpaved, to form a continuous 2,448-mile highway, passing through eight states: Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.
Rather than follow a straight line, Route 66 meandered across the country, linking small rural communities that might otherwise have been bypassed.
Motels, once simple auto camps and tourist homes, flourished into roadside landmarks, while mom-and-pop cafes, drive-in restaurants, souvenir shops, curiosities and neon-lit gas stations along the way turned the journey into an adventure all its own.
Greg Breeding, an art director for USPS, designed the stamps using existing photographs by David Schwartz.
The pane of 16 features vintage cars, historic motels, neon signs and other imagery from each of the eight states along the route, repeated twice.
The selvage is a photo by Schwartz of an open stretch of Route 66 rolling through hills near Crookton, AZ.
The Forever stamps will be available at Post Offices and usps.com.
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