If you aren’t able to literally make the drive to “get your kicks on Route 66,” you can still experience the famous road at the Illinois State Museum’s exhibit Miles of Memories: Stories of Route 66, opening May 23. The exhibit will highlight what it was like to travel, eat, stay and work along the route, called the Mother Road, that linked eight states across 2,400 miles from Illinois to California.
What makes the exhibit unique, according to Erika Holst, ISM’s curator of history, “is the opportunity to hear memories of the Mother Road in the voices of the people who lived it.”
Holst and Amanda Bryden, registrar of history and historic sites at the ISM, conducted interviews of 100 people during 2024 and 2025. The interviews included people from all parts of Illinois who lived, worked and traveled on Route 66 as well as those who are interpreting or preserving the Route. The oldest person interviewed was 92 years old. Ranging from 15 minutes to two hours, the recordings are posted on the ISM website and fill 75 hours of very unique stories. (Access the oral histories at illinoisstatemuseum.org and click on Illinois Route 66 – enter keywords such as gangsters, eating, hitchhiking, mishaps, music, tourism and many more.)
Bryden shared an interview that sticks out in her mind.
“A retired state trooper had patrolled the road at night in Macoupin and Montgomery counties. He remembered some high-speed chases, the way people would stop and help someone who had broken down on the side of the road, and the truck drivers who would assist someone stranded. He became somewhat philosophical in sharing that we now are more serious about enforcing drunk driving laws and the use of seat belts.”
The Route 66 exhibit will engage visitors with touch screens that connect to clips of interviews, listening stations and artifacts that explain various aspects of Route 66 – eating or staying along the route, stopping at attractions and sites, the African American experience of using the Green Book to travel safely and much more.
Original artifacts include Bob Waldmire’s artwork, his shorts and tie-dyed shirt plus the hood of his Ford Mustang that people signed. Waldmire (1945-2009) was known for his many travels along Route 66, documenting sites with maps and drawings; small art pieces were filled with pictures and text. Also on display will be neon signs, Burma Shave signs that lined the highway, fiberglass advertising giants, souvenirs and memorabilia.
Recently Bryden and Holst made a trip to Albany, New York, to pick up donations for the exhibit. Holst says, “We loaded up signs and an old gas pump.” That pump is six feet tall and will be part of the exhibit.
The Route 66 exhibit will open as part of the ISM overarching theme, America 250 Land of Stories.
Illinois State Museum America 250
As part of the celebrations for the nation’s 250th anniversary, the Illinois State Museum is showcasing four exhibits with the overarching theme America 250 Land of Stories.
In addition to the Route 66 exhibit scheduled first, three other exhibits will open June 27.
This Land is Their Land: Stories of Indigenous Survivance was developed in collaboration with Tribal partners. It will share the resilience and survival of Tribal Nations who inhabited Turtle Island (the name used for North America) how they were forcibly removed from what is now the state of Illinois, and how they have maintained ties with the land.
Resilient Nature will explore the changing landscape over our history that affects plants and animals and will feature examples of the resilience and recovery of animals, plants, and places across Illinois.
We the People of Illinois will showcase ISM items from its history collection to tell untold stories of Illinoisans. There will be a newly acquired, never-before-seen quilt, items that belonged to Oscar DePriest, the first Black Illinois congressman, and an 1859 wedding dress of a German immigrant domestic servant to Gov. William Bissell, among others.
The exhibit was made possible through support from the Illinois State Museum Society, the Hanson family, Jane and Paul Ford and Loken Family funds at the Community Foundation for the Land of Lincoln, in partnership with the Lumpkin Foundation, Stifel and the Cozy Dog Drive In.
Route 66 exhibits at The Pharmacy Gallery
Bob Waldmire, the nomadic hippie, gifted artist and Route 66 icon, has his life story, artwork and artifacts on display until December at The Pharmacy Gallery and Art Space, 623 E. Adams St. The exhibit includes photos, Waldmire’s solar oven he used to make pizza as he traveled the highway and his many maps. These maps show minute details of the towns, sites, mountain ranges and more along Route 66. Small magnifying glasses are nearby to help visitors read the tiny print. The needlepoint pens Waldmire used are on display. Waldmire had once written that he planned to make a four-page map but “it took 16 pages and four years to complete.”
Also on display at The Pharmacy until Dec. 26 is photography of Route 66 captured by internationally known photographer David Schwartz. For 20 years, he traveled the Mother Road more than 40 times, capturing pictures of the many iconic sites.
The exhibit includes photos of Springfield-specific items: the Lauterbach giant, Sunrise Donuts sign, Bill Shea and his gas station on Peoria Road and more.
Schwartz’s photography is featured on the official U.S. Postal Service Route 66 Centennial stamps.
On the back of The Pharmacy building, a Route 66 mural has been completed by Springfield artists Spenser and Lyndsay Stokes of Trackside Murals. To see it best, drive down Washington Street between Sixth and Seventh streets.
“Instead of cars and road signs, we used a more artsy scene since it is on the back of an art gallery,” Spencer Stokes said.
The Stokes have been painting murals for over a decade. Many can be seen around town, and they have completed quite a few Route 66-themed murals. One recently completed is the Route 66 mural in Williamsville. Other Route 66 murals can be seen in Chatham at AJ’s Corner and in Springfield at the Route 66 Hotel and Conference Center on South Sixth Street, Jamie’s Route 66 Bar at 3351 S. Sixth St. and Jackson’s Handlebar at 2001 N. 11th St.
Cinda Ackerman Klickna is a frequent contributor to Illinois Times.
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This article appears in Summerguide 2026.
