Monday, September 23, 2019

Roadside America Photo Collection

A collection of over 10,000 photographs of roadside America is now available for free online.

The collection includes "restaurants, gas stations, movie theaters, motels, signage, miniature golf courses, and beach and mountain vacation resorts."

John Margolies, Stork Cafe, 3rd Street, Route 66, Winslow, Arizona
The photos are by John Margolies (1940–2016), who traveled all over America taking pictures of the eccentric and colorful architecture found alongside the US highways.

Big John, El Dorado, Illinois
According to the website:
"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 suburbanization 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."


Website: John Margolies Photos of Roadside America
Books:
John Margolies: Roadside America
Fun Along the Road: American Tourist Attractions - Another Amazing Album from America's Number One Roadside Observer
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Via Public Domain Review

14 comments:

Penny Taylor said...

Wonderful! Now this takes me back to my childhood & road trips with my folks.

Peeved said...

Just curious about the copyright issue if I want to develop a painting from an image. I tried reading the copyright links but got confused. Can you provide any help with that interpretation?

khoinguyen.arc said...

Your works are my daily motivation,
Thanks,

James Gurney said...

Peeved, I haven't read through the fine print, but I believe such a use would be perfectly OK.

Aljosa said...

From the website: "Reproduction (photocopying, hand-held camera copying, photoduplication and other forms of copying allowed by "fair use")"

More here.

Virginia Fhinn said...

Neat! I think these kind of road-side photos are the best kind of reference pictures for practicing with gamuts

j_avina88 said...

This reminds me of when I took a road trip back in 2012 from LA to NY and back. Good times!

Terry Krysak said...

I read part of the Library of Congress legal page, and they say they don't necessarily own the copyright to the image(s) they are sharing, and one should contact the owner of the image first. https://www.loc.gov/legal/

Peeved said...

Thanks Terry,
Did you notice who owned these? With the photographer being dead, the rights fall for a number of years after death to his heirs.
Linda (Peeved)

Terry Krysak said...

John Margolies owned the collection https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Margolies

Peeved said...

I find a conflicting set of comments: The Wikipedia has this "Starting in 2007, the Library of Congress began to acquire his photographs, and created the public domain John Margolies Roadside America Photograph Archive in 2016..." The important point is public domain. That usually means the images can be used by painters. I would give attribution to the Library of Congress site. Yet the Library of Congress website says differently. I am confused by this. Anyone help?

Penny Taylor said...

Works published in the US before 1924 are in public domain. Works published after 1923 but before 1978 are protected for 95 years from the date of publication. If the work was created, but not published before 1978, the copyright lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years.

In this case where photos were published it would be '95 years. The copyright would go to his heirs. If he left the photos to an institution, the copyright would extend to that institution

Careful, gang... A lot of people out there are saying something is in the public domain when they add it to Wiki or other places because they want to use it or don't know better

Penny Taylor said...

Also... since the Library of Congress either purchased these or had them donated, they can decide whether they want to revert the photos to public domain... Contact them directly for the real down and dirty... ;-)

Peeved said...

Thanks Penny. That's as I thought. 8 know there is a clause, something about using part or making changes, but no any that would affect moral rights too. But I think I will stay away from using them as resource material.