History of DMV

The Illinois Department of Vehicle Services is part of the office of the Secretary of State of Illinois.

Illinois is proud of its long history of registering motor vehicles. The state first legislated horseless carriage registrations back in 1907 to help put a lid on accidents and car theft. The one-time registration fee back then was $2.

To give Illinois residents a thorough background on the rest of the state's motor vehicle history, the Secretary of State's office has produced an online video, The History of License Plates, with music and a detailed slideshow. You can navigate through this multimedia presentation year-by-year or decade-by-decade.

No other state's department of motor vehicles has anything like it, and it's well worth a few minutes of browsing. It's strangely addictive―before you know it, you'll know all the details about the early automobile years in Illinois.

You'll quickly learn that aluminum license plates were first issued in 1950―while the slideshow plays music from that era and you get to see a typical plate from that year.

1970 was the last year a chauffeur's identification card was issued. In 2001, the state began to offer special plates for retired military members, reading "LIFER."

Pressed for time or have a slow Internet connection? You can instead access a print version of each decade's history from the bottom navigation bar for that decade.

Fun Registration Facts

The sheer numbers in these Illinois vehicle statistics may explain why vehicle services processing is sometimes a little slow:

• Total vehicles registered in Illinois: more than 9.3 million.

• Passenger vehicles registered: about 6.6 million.

• RVs registered: more than 54,000.

• Motorcycles registered: more than 200,000.