Just Added to Our Digital Collections: Dexter Press Photographs

May 5, 2015 Think THF, Archive Insight

John Margolies is both a photographer and a collector of items related to American travel and its unique sights.  In preparation for our upcoming exhibit about Margolies and the American roadside, we’ve digitized a number of selections from this collection, including 35mm slides taken by John Margolies himself, and pennants and hotel/motel do-not-disturb signs he collected. This week, we add another grouping to that list: Dexter Press photographs dating between 1935 and 1950, designed to be used as postcards. The images, collected by Margolies, capture the same types of establishments he would photograph decades later: gas stations, diners, salons, and stores, such as the Dixie Liquor Store in St. Louis, MO, shown here. Browse more than 30 Dexter Press photos and postcards by visiting our Digital Collections, and be sure to mark your calendar to come see many of our Margolies items in person in the exhibit “Roadside America: Through the Lens of John Margolies” between June 20, 2015 and January 24, 2016.

Ellice Engdahl is Digital Collections & Content Manager at The Henry Ford.

20th century, 1950s, 1940s, 1930s, travel, Roadside America, photographs, John Margolies, digital collections, by Ellice Engdahl