Arizona Route 66 Association gives $50,000 to NAU to preserve documents

The Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona announced Tuesday it created a $50,000 endowment to help Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff preserve and digitize Route 66 documents and photographs in the university’s collection.

From left, Sean Evans, Northern Arizona University’s Cline Library, Angel Delgadillo, Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona president, Cynthia Ann Childrey, dean and university librarian, and Peter Runge, head of Special Collections and Archives at NAU, pose with the $50,000 check Delgadillo presented for an NAU endowment.

According to a news release from Nikki Seegers, director of operations at the association:

The Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona’s mission is to preserve, promote, and protect Route 66 in Arizona, so it was a natural fit for the Association to create an endowment at NAU’s Cline Library to help preserve Route 66 history.
Working together with archivists from the Cline Library, the Association donated their historical records to be archived in 2017. As the first Route 66 Association in the country, they wanted the documents, photos, posters, and records saved for everyone to research, access, and enjoy. In addition, the Delgadillo family contributed Angel’s personal collection to the Cline Library to archive. Angel Delgadillo played a strategic role in forming the Association and continues to contribute to its success 32 years later.
The Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona Endowment will generate interest after the first year. The Cline Library will work off a portion of the endowment’s interest. This size gift will ensure the collections will be taken care of for many years.
The first goal will be to catalog the 12 Route 66 collections the library has stored. Some items in the collections will be digitized and available on the library’s website. All the items will be available for research at NAU’s Cline Library in Flagstaff, Arizona. The Association’s board of directors toured the facility last winter and they were able to view some of the library’s most prized possessions which are stored in a climate and light controlled environment. In addition to cataloging the collection, the endowment will enable the Cline Library team to create exhibits for the public to enjoy the collection.

Donations to the endowment made be made online here. The endowment name is “Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona Endowment” under
Fund: #1894.

Checks can be made out to “NAU Foundation” and mailed to:

NAU Foundation
P.O. Box 4094
Flagstaff, AZ  86011-4094

Be sure to specify “Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona Endowment” in the check’s memo.

Flush with $231,000 in revenue from the first year of a state specialty license-plate program, the association recently gave a $10,000 grant to help restore the wall at the Standin’ on a Corner Park in Winslow, Arizona.

(Image of the endowment check presentation courtesy of the Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona)

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