New Mexico PBS stations recently completed digitization of their archives since 1963, including a one-hour special about Route 66 in that state.
“¡Colores! Route 66 in New Mexico” aired in August 2001. I recommend you spend time with it during the Thanksgiving holiday. You’ll probably see vintage photos and footage you’ve never seen before.
The online archive includes a lot of additional footage from the Route 66 documentary, including home movies, B-roll footage and full interviews with its subjects.
That includes two unedited interviews with “Route 66: The Mother Road” author Michael Wallis.
The Albuquerque Journal reports the digitization effort of 8,000 items in the archives took two years and about $500,000.
To search the collection, go here.
(Screen-capture image from a video of historian David Kammer on an early alignment of Route 66 in New Mexico)