The University of Tulsa is hosting an exhibition, “Faces of the Mother Road: The Last Portraits of S.J. Tyler,” at 101 Archer for two months as part of the start of Route 66’s centennial before it goes out on the road.
The show features images from Sydney Joseph Tyler’s Photography Studio in Afton, Oklahoma, which appear to have been taken during the 1920s and ’30s.
According to a news release from the university, author and photographer Adam Forgash found thousands of glass photo negatives in a New York storage unit in 2023.
Curiosity piqued, he reached out to The University of Tulsa’s Mary F. Barnard Professor of Nineteenth-Century American History Kristen Oertel. “He just emailed me out of the blue and said, ‘I found these glass negatives at this flea market and I thought they were really beautiful, so I bought them,’” recalled Oertel. “‘Do you think they’re as significant as I think they might be?’”
Forgash sent the first batch of photographs to Oertel, who noted that they appeared to be taken in the 1920s and 30s. “What struck me was how many different kinds of people were represented by the photographs,” she said. “I think we have this impression of early 20th-century photography being of only middle- and upper-class white families who had the money to sit for a photography session. Tyler seems to have gone out of his way to capture every kind of person who was traveling and living along Route 66.”
Through his own research, Forgash discovered that Tyler had a diverse clientele, including Black, Asian, Latino, Indigenous and mixed families. At the time, Afton was a hub of activity, and the surrounding regions brought a lot of tourism to the town. Tyler’s studio was located on what would eventually become part of America’s famous Route 66, undoubtedly contributing to his wide range of clients.
“Although the photo studio was in Afton, this is really a story about the travelers of the Mother Road,” said Forgash. “Most of the photographer’s subjects were everyday travelers passing through the region, making this collection a unique and unseen glimpse into the history of Route 66, northeast Oklahoma, and the people and cultures that shaped the region.”
Oertel thinks the exhibition “will open up a window to a past that most Oklahomans didn’t realize existed.”
The 101 Archer space is at 101 E. Archer Ave. in Tulsa. Hours are from noon to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday.
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