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Faces of the Mother Road
January 2, 6:00 pm-9:00 pm
Free
In partnership with the Route 66 Alliance, and renowned author/historian Michael Wallis, “Faces of the Mother Road: The Portraits of S.J. Tyler,” features dozens of photographs taken between 1913 and 1943 in Tyler’s Afton, Oklahoma, studio. Photographer Adam Forgash discovered the antique glass negatives of these rare images in 2023, and in collaboration with The University of Tulsa and the Oklahoma Center for Humanities, the Tulsa community will be the first to see them. The traveling exhibition bridges art, history and cultural identity and features portraits of Black, White, Asian, Indigenous and Latino Americans taken during the peak of Route 66’s popularity.
“Although the photo studio was in Afton, this is really a story about the travelers of the Mother Road,” said Forgash. “Most of the photographer’s subjects were everyday travelers passing through the region, making this collection a unique and unseen glimpse into the history of Route 66, northeast Oklahoma, and the people and cultures that shaped the region.”
Join us for the opening night of the exhibition on Friday, Jan. 2, 2026, as part of the First Friday Art Crawl at 101 Archer.