August 5, 2002

10:14 AM

In 1937, Nebraskan Joycolyn Knapp took a road trip with her family; in 2000, her grandson put her trip journal on the web. In addition to a mileage log and a list of expenditures (229 gallons of gas: $40.02), the journal contains dozens of photos of Depression-era America, including Yellowstone, New Orleans, and San Francisco. The postcards Grandma Knapp chose to save and the things she chose to document are wonderful both in themselves and for their portrayal of the American road trip before the birth of the interstate highway system. (via Portage)
posted by snarkout (8 comments total)

I think we're killing the poor site...
posted by GeekAnimator at 10:34 AM on August 5, 2002

I will check this later after the stampede, but from what I see this is absolutely fantastic. The folks over at misc.transport.road go apeshit over things like this. Thanks for the link snarkout.
posted by PrinceValium at 10:42 AM on August 5, 2002

No! No! I was going to post it at m.t.r! (It will probably get lost amid the arguments over how the Eastern 30% of the US is hogging 60% of the potential north-south Interstate numbers. And I only wish I were kidding.)

Comparable sites of interest: Kodak's Mile Markers site, and Forty Days Across America in 1927, by a Japanese-American.
posted by dhartung at 12:06 PM on August 5, 2002

great site! this is the perfect kind of site to spend a rainy saturday with.
posted by centrs at 12:24 PM on August 5, 2002

dhartung: No! No! I was going to post it at m.t.r! (It will probably get lost amid the arguments over how the Eastern 30% of the US is hogging 60% of the potential north-south Interstate numbers. And I only wish I were kidding.)

End I-99! Extend I-86! Build an extra traffic light in Kansas City! {head explodes, quits Usenet forever}

snarkout: ...wonderful both in themselves and for their portrayal of the American road trip before the birth of the interstate highway system.

The precursor to the interstate system itself was not far behind this date. Here's a page with old highway photos from California.
posted by PrinceValium at 12:45 PM on August 5, 2002

I was searching for my "offline archiver" software when I noticed that the Super Smart And Good And Awesome author had the entire site available in a handy zip file for downloading and viewing offline. (For modem users)

We need more content creators like this!
posted by fnirt at 1:46 PM on August 5, 2002

The zip file is a great idea, and when it's less busy and doesn't take over 3 hours to download, I'll be all over it!
posted by Salmonberry at 1:56 PM on August 5, 2002

Portage rocks.
posted by mblandi at 7:20 PM on August 5, 2002