PREVIEW

AssetID: 31884497

Headline: Roadside America Photograph Archive Showcased

Caption: PICTURE SHOWS: Julie's Victory Diner sign, State Street, Watertown, New York (State) .... These fascinating images give a glimpse of Americana from the last century. They are the work of John Margolies, whose Roadside America Photograph Archive is now being showcased by the Library of Congress. They describe the collection as "one of the most comprehensive documentary studies of vernacular commercial structures along main streets, byways, and highways throughout the United States in the twentieth century." Photographed over a span of forty years (1969-2008) by the architectural critic and curator John Margolies (1940-2016), the collection consists of 11,710 colour slides (35mm film transparencies). Frequent subjects include restaurants, gas stations, movie theaters, motels, signage, miniature golf courses, and beach and mountain vacation resorts. Approximately half of the slides show sites in California, Florida, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, South Carolina, and Texas, but all 48 contiguous states are represented. The Library of Congress began to acquire portions of the archive in 2007, with the bulk of the materials arriving in 2015. These holdings form the core of what Margolies considered the exemplary images of his subject matter. Margolies' Roadside America work chronicled a period of American history defined by the automobile and the ease of travel it allowed. Emerging with the prosperity of the post-WWII era, roadside and commercial structures spread with the boom of suburbanisation and the expansion of paved roads across the United States. Yet, in many instances, the only remaining record of these buildings is on Margolies' film, because tourist architecture was endangered by the expansion of the interstate system and changing travel desires. Margolies' work was influential in the addition of roadside buildings to the National Register of Historic Places beginning in the late 1970s. The Library of Congress say: "In his photography, Margolies utilised a straightforward, unsentimental approach that emphasised the form of the buildings. These structures were usually isolated in the frame and photographed head-on or at an oblique angle to provide descriptive details. Given the breadth of his subject matter, common typologies and motifs in vernacular architecture can be identified through their repetition. While environmental context is only occasionally provided, Margolies' eye was often drawn to signage or other graphic elements of buildings that expressed the ingenuity or eccentricity of their makers."

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