Travel Virtually with Roadside America

The following is a guest post by Helena Zinkham, Chief, Prints and Photographs Division.

The Prints and Photographs Division (P&P) invites you to get your mouse (or your car or bicycle) ready to travel the byways and highways that photographer John Margolies drove along as he created the Roadside America Collection between 1969 and 2008.

A new story map by P&P Digital Library Specialist Chris Masciangelo provides an engaging way to visit the many attractions represented in close to 12,000 color slides. When you click on the map’s red dots, you’ll see buildings shaped like animals, lively signage, and lots of gas stations, movie theaters, and miniature golf courses.

Please tell us about your favorite finds!

Learn More:

• Take a virtual tour around the United States through the new Roadside America Story Map.
• Read more about John Margolies and his archive in our collection overview, and start your visual tour through the photos!
• Watch a video where John Margolies describes his work and working methods.
• A favorite feature of the Margolies roadside architecture photos are the variety of examples of “mimetic architecture” that he captured, where the shape of the building is often the clue to what is sold inside. Explore other examples of mimetic architecture in Prints & Photographs Division collections in our earlier blog post, “Caught Our Eyes: Coffee and Donuts, Anyone?”
• Take a look at the Roadside America images we post in Flickr and the comments that viewers offer.  (Anyone can view. You can sign up for a free Flickr account to offer comments–or contact us through our Ask a Librarian service!)
• Read the Picture This blog post where we announced that the collection had gone online: “Exclamation Points–John Margolies Photographs of Roadside America Ready for Touring” and the post about “Armchair Travel: Watching the Signs Along the Way.”