Posts Tagged ‘scenic’

14,400 slides part of Cushman Photo Collection

November 30, 2007

The Charles Weever Cushman Collection at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, consists of ten cubic feet of materials, including 2,200 b/w negatives and prints. Just three of those cubic feet are slides, but what a collection — more than 14,400 color Kodachrome slides shot from 1938 to 1969. Cushman’s photos have been digitized through Indiana University’s Digital Library Program and the Indiana University Archives and are now online.

Cushman and his LZ
Cushman and his trusty 1940 Lincoln Zephyr at San Francisco, 1958, at 202,000 miles by then.

An amateur photographer, most of Cushman’s images are scenic, many are from such countries as from Lebanon, Germany, Austria, England, and Mexico. There are few roadside or industrial sites, but roads and cars do make it into many of the slides. Here are some from along the Lincoln Highway or close to it—click the links to see larger views.

The old Lincoln Highway snakes under the railroad at Donner Summit, CA, 1958.
CA_Donner

Along Lake Tahoe at Tunnel Rock, NV, 1953.
NV_TunRock

An antique car climbing Spooner Summit, NV, 1958.
CA_SpoonerSum


Check out Green River, Wyoming, in 1958, or another view in 1963 showing the Husky Truck Stop Cafe.
WY_GrRiv 58

WY_GrRiv 63


A clear day in Salt Lake City, 1958, looking north on State Street toward the capitol.
UT_SLC


There’s lots else to see plus essays about Cushman and his collection. Photos reprinted here with the kind permission of Indiana University, Office of University Archives & Records Management, with special thanks to Curator Bradley D. Cook.

Nebraska Promotes the Lincoln Hwy with Videos

November 2, 2007

NE Weiss signThe Nebraska Division of Travel and Tourism has produced both a short and long video to promote the Lincoln Highway as a scenic route. The focus is on natural beauty and general history more than auto-era attractions, though there are some nice views of the brick road west of Omaha and Buffalo Bill’s Scouts Rest Ranch in North Platte.

The LH there is now a Nebraska Byway, not to be confused with an American Byway, the name for roads in the National Scenic Byways program, which the LH has only achieved in Illinois. The Nebraska tourism site has general descriptions of 10 such routes here.

More info and photos are available on the site for the Lincoln Highway Scenic and Historic Byway Association, “a grassroots organization that brings together businesses, government tourism entities, and individuals along Highway 30 in Nebraska to work together and promote this stretch of road to tourists.”

The only description online of the Byway program itself is in a Department of Roads brochure detailing highway sign regulations: “The Nebraska Byways Program identifies significant two-lane highways throughout the state that highlight Nebraska’s diverse topography, history, culture, recreational opportunities and landscapes.”

Here is the 29-second video. Other roads in their series get near identical narration:

And here is the 3-minute video:

Thanks to Lenore Weiss for the sign photo.