—The Wall Street Journal

—Western Museums Association

The first exhibition to consider Route 66 from a national perspective, tracing the 2,400-mile highway from its 1926 founding through the Great Depression, its postwar heyday as a travel destination, its displacement by the Interstate system, and the movement to preserve it. More than 250 artifacts, many from institutions and private collections across the country and displayed together for the first time, included Jack Kerouac’s original typed scroll of On the Road, Woody Guthrie’s guitar, a 1960 Corvette, and photographs by Dorothea Lange and Ed Ruscha. Four sections, The Roots of the Route, The Mother Road, Another Roadside Attraction, and End of the Trail, moved between the road’s romance and its harder histories, from Native American stereotypes in roadside souvenirs to segregation along the route. With more than 100,000 visitors over its seven-month run, it became the most popular exhibition in the Autry’s history at the time.

Design: The typography was drawn from the road itself. Research began on Route 66, driving the route to document how its signage evolved over the road’s lifetime. Each section’s type took cues from that evolution, shaped by how the signs were made, so the lettering aged alongside the road as visitors moved through the exhibition.

| AC: Graphic & Type Design

Team
| Spatial Design: Gene Wyrick
| Curation: Jeffrey Richardson
| Studio: Autry Museum