ZOOM RECORDING: Steve Lech – The Pines-to-Palms Highway: Connecting Southern California’s Mountains and Deserts for 90+ Years
Join author Steve Lech, Riverside County, California historian, for the fascinating story of the Pines-to-Palms Highway and the two men who led the amazing community effort to get it built during the Great Depression. Watch Video
ZOOM RECORDING: Leslie “Dottie” Van Every – Our Own Paradise: History of Black-Owned American Resorts
Zoom Event: Wednesday, March 6, 8pm EST – You may have heard of the Green Book, a popular travel guide treasured by the Black community for its travel tips during Jim Crow. But have you heard of Black Eden? Or Idlewild? Or American Beach? These are some of the many Black resorts that were popular places
ZOOM RECORDING: Patrick Quinn – California’s Forgotten Bars and Restaurants
ZOOM EVENT: Wednesday, January 17, 2024 at 8:00pm EST - Join us for a fun and fabulous tour of cocktail culture in the Golden State. Whether you’re the type to visit roadside diners, chic hotels, hidden dives, fancy restaurants, tiki bars, or, ahem, the neighborhood exotic dancer’s nightclub, napkin collector Patrick Quinn, author of Bar Keeps,
ZOOM RECORDING: Marisa Scheinfeld – Greetings from The Borscht Belt
ZOOM RECORDING: Join Marisa Scheinfeld, author of The Borscht Belt: Revisiting the Remains of America’s Jewish Vacationland for an illustrated lecture with photographs of abandoned sites where resorts, hotels and bungalow colonies once boomed in the Catskill Mountain region of upstate New York. Recorded November 29, 2023.
ZOOM RECORDING: Cara Rodway – America Hobnobs at the Tourist Camp: Social Change and the Roadside in the Interwar Years
Join Cara Rodway, Head of Research Development at the British Library as she delves into the motivations driving this rapid expansion and its implications for consumer behavior. We will explore why motels thrived during this era, shedding light on business strategies and shifts in consumer preferences. Recorded October 22, 2023.
ZOOM RECORDING: Robert W. Hadlow, Ph.D. – Drive to Oregon Down the Famed Columbia River Highway
Recorded Wednesday, September 20th: Come along for a ride down the Columbia River Highway, America’s First Highway. This route was constructed from 1913 to 1922 east of Portland, Oregon, along the south shore of the Columbia River. In nearly 80 miles, it offered motorists magnificent views of a wonderful collection of waterfalls and many scenic vistas.
ZOOM RECORDING: Mike Walker – Imagined Exotica and Atom Futures
Recorded Wednesday, August 16, 2023: Wednesday, August 16 at 8:00pm EDT: Join journalist Mike Walker as he examines the mid-twentieth century American beachside hotel and motel architecture which brought forth a fusion of California Googie futurism, the exoticism of the South Pacific and other distant locales.
ZOOM RECORDING: Andrea Vesentini – The Black Experience on America’s Roads in the 20th Century
Recorded Wednesday, July 23, 2023: Join Andrea Vesentini, cultural historian residing in Venice, Italy as he discusses whether inclusion can really be provided by vehicles designed to privatize each driver's movement across urban space? Was Jim Crow really subverted by private transportation, or was it exacerbated by a mode of circulation that did not disallow segregation,
