Route 66: Radiance, Rust, and Revival on the Mother Road

From her hotly debated beginnings to her decades-long role as a pathway for adventurers, migrant workers, post-war veterans, tourists, hippies and sentimental souls, Route 66 has fascinated and engaged us, and compelled us to follow her beaten, crumbling path. 

Conceived in honor of the 90th anniversary of Route 66, this exhibition celebrates the art, history and popular culture of the iconic Mother Road.

Too often the history of Route 66 in Albuquerque has been overlooked, even though our city sits at the center of the Southwestern leg of the route and boasts, at 16 miles, the longest single-city urban stretch of the highway in the nation. We are also the only place on the Mother Road where the highway crosses itself! Indeed the very re-routing of Route 66 to the east-west alignment was a political scandal, but shaved time and miles off the odometers of road-weary travelers and their automobiles.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website