Rio Siesta Motel Sign, Clinton, Oklahoma, 1982

Summary

In the mid-1970s, John Margolies began to assemble a visual record of America's built roadside landscape. Over the following three decades, he traveled thousands of miles to photograph the overlooked and often quickly vanishing structures that had grown out of American automobile culture and main street commerce. His photographs of hotels, motels, diners, service stations, drive-ins and attractions celebrate and capture a unique chapter of American history.

In the mid-1970s, John Margolies began to assemble a visual record of America's built roadside landscape. Over the following three decades, he traveled thousands of miles to photograph the overlooked and often quickly vanishing structures that had grown out of American automobile culture and main street commerce. His photographs of hotels, motels, diners, service stations, drive-ins and attractions celebrate and capture a unique chapter of American history.

Artifact

Slide (Photograph)

Subject Date

1982

 On Exhibit

By Request in the Benson Ford Research Center

Object ID

2013.150.344

Credit

From the Collections of The Henry Ford.

Technique

Chromogenic processes

Color

Multicolored

Dimensions

Height: 2 in

Width: 2 in

Related Content

Connect 3

Discover curious connections between artifacts.

Learn More