Printed America: How Route 66’s Centennial is Powering a New Era of Print
With additional contributions from Toni McQuilken, Allee Bruce, and Gabby Houck
Who doesn’t love a good piece of commemorative merch? Maybe it’s a hoodie from a concert by your favorite artist. You might have celebrated the America 250 anniversary with a customized mug and matching baseball cap.
Today’s consumer doesn’t want boring, traditional products to remember an event, cause, or topic they’re passionate about. And printers shouldn’t offer to create that type of merch.
These packages have truly become a case study on the importance of print — without it, nothing comes to life or gets remembered year after year.
Case in point: America might have been celebrating its 250th birthday, but a piece of that Americana experience is the iconic Route 66, which is celebrating its 100th year in 2026.
Yes, the museums, cultural celebrations, and speaking engagements are the highlight of the festivities. But none of those are possible without print. Let’s look inside how print is the foundation of this important Centennial celebration.
Celebrating a Moment in Time
You don’t have to be a motorhead to know what Route 66 is. Its legendary status in American history will likely stand the test of time for another 100 years. But without print, it never would have achieved its notoriety in the first place.
Maps, signage, books, and pamphlets all had to be printed to bring the iconic highway to life. And now, it’s print that’s continuing to support that legacy beyond just a “birthday.”
“From the outset, we were determined that the Centennial had to be more than a birthday party for a famous road,” says William Thomas, Chair, Route 66 Road Ahead Partnership and
Commissioner, U.S. Route 66 Centennial Commission. “Our vision was to use this moment as a catalyst: to preserve what remains of the historic road, its stories, and its communities; to promote Route 66 as a living, working corridor of travel, commerce, and culture rather than a relic; and to prepare the road and the people along it for the next century. That meant looking beyond ceremonies and souvenirs.”
It means taking print to the next level, which requires working with reputable companies that could get the job done. When selecting partners to work with, Thomas explains that a lot of care went into the process for all partners involved, printers and otherwise. “One of the first things we did was to adopt a clear, public facing Centennial Strategy that anyone could see and measure themselves against,” he explains. “We agreed that the strategy of the Route 66 Centennial is to celebrate and commemorate the historic milestone of the 100th anniversary of Route 66 — and to leverage that milestone to honor the road by helping the millions who live, work, and travel along it.”
To bring that sentiment to life, a commission website was created and the doors opened to everyone. “Submissions were accepted on a rolling basis and reviewed by one of four Commission Working Groups: Commemoratives & Publications, Infrastructure, Events & Celebrations, and International & National Marketing,” Thomas says. From there, qualified submissions were sent to the full Route 66 Centennial Commission, more questions were asked, and candidates were examined.
While one can’t underscore that absolute importance of all partners involved, for the purposes of this article, we focus on those that helped with printing.
Print: The Quiet Workhorse
When you truly look at all the printed materials necessary to bring this culturally significant milestone to life, it paints a picture of just how crucial the print industry is:
According to the centennial celebration site, there are a few main printing partners that have worked on these items:
While some printing partners couldn’t be reached for comment at the time of writing, it’s clear in visiting the website and speaking with other experts in the printing industry just how important its role is not only to the story-telling, but the branding and marketing aspect as well.
“One of the first realities we faced is that Route 66 has never meant just one thing,” Thomas says. “Instead of trying to compress all of that into a single, narrow identity, we embraced the idea of ‘many stories, one road.’ … We also adopted a ‘local first, national by design’ approach. The national strategy sets out shared goals — preservation, promotion, education, and inclusion — and provides a framework for timing, branding, and messaging. But it deliberately leaves room for local character and autonomy.”
For some insight on the merch side of things, we met up with Jeremy Picker, creative director and founder of AMB3R Creative. While he primarily operates in the apparel and promotional products space, the idea of creating stories through printed merch regardless of the blank is something he’s deeply immersed in.
For anyone wondering how these types of printed materials come together, Picker offers his own approach. “If the company has a rich heritage, then the archives would be the place to start,” he notes. “Pulling old advertisements, ephemera, typography, pictures, etc. — it’s understanding the past to connect to the present. The next thing is to understand who the merch is for: the new demographic of the brand and a connection to the older generation.”
Route 66 is nationally iconic, so Picker explains that printed materials can work with both past and present to help connect the dots. “Because it is something tangible that will bring people back to the ‘good ol’ days,’ memories captured in time through pictures is all people have to stay connected to Route 66,” he says. “[The printed merch associated with the centennial celebration] gives them that thing they can put on their shelf or wear to bring them back.”
But it’s bigger than that, Picker feels. In the glory days of Route 66, souvenirs were all the rage. Travelers along the iconic route found themselves snagging commemorative items to remember the trip — and to prove they got their “kicks on Route 66.” “Roadside motels also would give away branded pieces, so when pulling from the past, you want to make sure you stir up those feelings and memories of a time long gone,” Picker says.
Remembering Route 66
Let’s take a deeper look at some of the printed commemorative items fans can currently get their hands on, starting with a quick peek at the stamps. If you want to take an in-depth look at the stamps and how the design came to life, check out the exclusive interview with Lisa Bobb-Semple at USPS (linked in the image below).
As you can imagine, there isn’t a lot of physical space when working with stamp designs, so creativity was key, Bobb-Semple shared in the interview. Here’s an excerpt from the full article:
“In the case of Route 66, the USPS connected with photographer David J. Schwartz, who provided the iconic images that truly captured the essence of what the highway means to people. From there, Greg Breeding, an art director for USPS, then designed the eight individual stamps, as well as the commemorative pane of 16 that can be purchased for display. The idea was to have one stamp to represent each of the eight states Route 66 travels through — Missouri, Illinois, Oklahoma, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Kansas, and California."
Moving on to the apparel and merch collections, DnR Custom Apparel, located in Virden, IL, is responsible for the commemorative map, bumper stickers, apparel, and hard goods fulfillment. A representative of the company did not return calls or emails at the time of writing, but a quick review of available items puts the Route 66 Centennial logo front and center. While it makes sense to keep that the focal point, Picker feels print’s capabilities are too good not to have pushed the envelope.
Rather than simply sticking to the logo, Picker would have leaned harder into the nostalgia. “[They could have employed the] heart and soul of what it was like in the heyday,” he believes, “trying to ‘re-create’ actual assets and design from the OG so that it feels era-accurate and fun to look at.”
For example, this collection could have included lifestyle photography featuring the accessories in a classic vacation car at old roadside motels. “Mechanic shops and diner signage would elevate it to the next level,” Picker adds.
In that spirit, for those out there working on similar projects, Picker has some words of advice: “‘Make it and they will buy’ does not and will not work for 99% of merch collections,” he says. “Successful merch campaigns usually require more thought and intention to succeed … The understanding of the retail world is important, and the design is extra important because that is what the buyer will see before they touch, feel, and wear the product. The onboarding and doing deep research would be the most important part of this. It needs to feel authentic and bring people back to that time period.”
The map, on the other hand, really does lean into the nostalgia of Route 66. The inside features essential stops, pictures of famous landmarks, specific state-by-state information, and even a cool photo collage.
Capturing Nostalgia
Despite the printed merch lacking a little luster, the message is still clear: People love celebrating their culture, their history, and huge milestone events, and without print, these stories would never come to life or be remembered.
“For someone coming to this fresh in 2026, I would hope they walk away with two key understandings,” Thomas says. “The first is that Route 66 is, in many ways, a mirror of American history. … The second thing I hope people understand is that Route 66 still matters because it is not just a piece of nostalgia; it is a living corridor.”
Ultimately, this is bigger than some birthday party or one-day celebration. “When the Centennial is over, I won’t measure success by how many events we held or how many people attended a single festival,” Thomas says. “I’ll measure it by what has changed and what endures.”
Print is an essential element in helping that story endure, and one big reason why our industry matters.