Glimpses back in time

Darned if I can find many Route 66 references. But nostalgia is a significant part of the Route 66 experience, and the Ephemera Now Web site contains it in spades.

In fact, it’s the best nostalgia Web site I’ve seen. It describes itself as “the museum and gift shop of mid-century advertising art and illustration.” The links to artwork and photos are listed by Cars, Wagons, Photos, Trucks, Decor, Advertorium and Christmas. The colors are so vivid, they fairly explode when popped up on the computer screen. New material for the site is detailed in a blog called Pastelogram.

It’s hard to pick favorites because so many of the images are wonderful. This illustration of Interstate 70 passing by Lambert-St. Louis International Airport came from less-complicated times (this stretch was a bypass alignment of Route 66). This congestion-free image of Interstate 5 in Los Angeles in 1960, which bypassed Route 66, would make modern-day Southern California drivers envious.

And this 1960 image foresees fast and simple highway-making. If it really were that fast and simple, the widening of Interstate 44 in Tulsa would have happened by now.

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