They arrived in a kaleidoscope of colors, but one prevailed.

For decades, the American school bus has maintained such a standardized appearance that "school bus yellow" has become a national term for its deep, glossy shade.

No act of Congress mandated the color, with its slight orange tint.

Rather, a 1939 conference of transportation officials from all U.S. states (then 48) chose the shade for its visibility as one of the first safety standards.

At their peak in the 1980s, the yellow buses took more than 60% of U.S. students to school.

The metal-bodied school bus originated in rural America, where Georgia car dealer Albert Luce designed it to transport cement workers, and later marketed it to schools after the company rejected the concept.

The timing was impeccable, as school districts replaced one-room neighborhood schoolhouses with larger institutions situated considerably farther apart, a consolidation that gave rise to the school bus.

“I don’t believe one could have existed without the other,” remarks Matt Anderson, the chief curator of transportation at the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation in Dearborn, Michigan, which preserves Luce’s 1927 bus.

Decades later, buses facilitated the desegregation of schools, transporting Black and white children across the country’s racial divide.

This contentious practice has largely been discontinued, and across much of the United States, schools have become increasingly segregated rather than less so.

Carl Fisher drove a metal school bus for two-thirds of its nearly 100-year history.

With 66 years behind the wheel, Fisher retired in 2012 as the longest-working driver, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

His first model was a Dodge truck that his dad’s friend converted, adding benches and small stools to haul 20 children in Pleasant Hope, Missouri.

“He fitted it with windows and all the trimmings, truly made it something special,” Fisher remarks.

The foundational elements became the industry benchmark, and subsequent safety enhancements followed, encompassing cushioned seating and a fold-out stop sign.

"It's the safest form of on-road transportation per passenger, per mile, bar none — without seat belts," says Brad Beauchamp, who works on the electric vehicles team at Blue Bird, the yellow school bus maker that Luce reportedly named after the bird his wife saw on a fence post.

Owing to driver shortages and other contributing factors, the availability of yellow school buses to transport many students has been eliminated, thereby placing an increased burden on families to arrange their own transportation.

Jim Oppegard, who transported children for over two decades in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Park, retired at 94 as the oldest school bus driver on record.

It’s rewarding work, he says.

“You’re contributing to the welfare of the children and to society at large,” he remarks.

“What you’re doing is of considerable importance.”

This installment is part of the ongoing series “American Objects,” commemorating the 250th anniversary of the United States.

For further entries in this collection, click here.

For additional anniversary coverage, click here.