Visible Gas Pump, Birch Tree, Missouri, 1979

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

1979

 On Exhibit

By Request in the Benson Ford Research Center

Object ID

2013.150.182

Credit

From the Collections of The Henry Ford.

Technique

Chromogenic processes

Color

Multicolored

Dimensions

Height: 2 in

Width: 2 in

Inscriptions

at top on slide mount: Visible Pump / Birch Tree, MO / @1979

Related Content

Connect 3

Discover curious connections between artifacts.

Learn More