The next edition of the monthly Route 66 Centennial Speaker Series will be “Foodways on Route 66” by historian and author T. Lindsay Baker.
The livestream of “Foodways on Route 66” will be on May 12 at 2 p.m. Eastern or 11 a.m. Pacific time. The hosting organization is the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum in Canyon, Texas. Audra Bellmore, professor and endowed curator at the Meem Archives of Southwestern Architecture at the University of New Mexico, will be the moderator.
Free registration is now open via this link.
Here’s the synopsis of the session:
Everyone who traveled Route 66 needed to stop and eat — Dust Bowl migrants, military convoys, cross-country bus riders, and families on summer vacations. Their meals tell a story of America in motion.
Where travelers dined, what they found, and how those offerings changed over time reflect a shifting national landscape. From roadside stands to diners and supper clubs, the evolution of food along Route 66 reveals broader transformations in American cuisine, culture, and community life.
In this session, author T. Lindsay Baker explores the eateries that rose and fell along the highway from its establishment in 1926 through the interstate era, offering a flavorful look at the places that fed generations on the road.
Baker holds degrees from Texas Tech University, earning his Ph.D. there in 1977. His teaching career includes faculty positions at Texas Tech, Baylor University, and Tarleton State University. He was a Fulbright lecturer in Poland from 1975 to 1977.
Baker’s career has also involved museum work, beginning at the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum in Canyon, Texas, where he was curator of science and technology. He has held curatorial and administrative positions at museums across Texas.
Baker has published widely on engineering history, Polish Americans in Texas, windmills, ghost towns and Route 66. He has received awards for his scholarship and was named a fellow of the Texas State Historical Association in 1987.
His Route 66 books include “Portrait of Route 66” (2016) and “Eating Up Route 66: Foodways on America’s Mother Road” (2022), both published by the University of Oklahoma Press.
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