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Before the Interstates there was the Lincoln Highway
Album Description
The Lincoln Highway was America’s first trans-continental highway; is also the title of Amor Towels newest and best-selling novel. (Viking, 2021)
The story follows the journey of 4 boys, 3 of them recently escaped or released from a Kansas juvenile detention center. The intended to head west, but circumstances led traveling to the eastern end of the highway in New York City. Two traveled in a stolen car; two rode the rails. Along the way they visited cities and landmarks, met an assortment of characters and had some precarious adventures. The story also gives us a glimpse of life in the 50’s.
Much of the Lincoln highway built in 1912 has been replaced by Interstate 80 and other roads, but parts of it (and historic markers) still exist.
The Library of Congress is rich with pertinent resources; some are included in this album primarily as a resource for those of you who have enjoyed the book. The resources offer curriculum applications as well and can be used independently of the book in areas such as geography and local history.
This is a collaborative album; anyone can add additional resources but it would be fun to have additions from people who live in a Lincoln Highway area.
Mural
Teaching Notes
Enlarge the image. What do you see?
Locate Stoystown on a map.
Reference link: http://www.loc.gov/item/2019690701/
Reference note
Contributor Names: Highsmith, Carol M., 1946-, photographer
Created / Published: 2019-06-15.
Subject Headings: - United States--Pennsylvania--Stoystown
- America
- Lincoln Highway
- Carl G. Fisher
- Transcontinental highways
- Murals
Genre: Digital photographs--Color--2010-2020
Notes: - Title, date and keywords based on information provided by the photographer.
- The Lincoln Highway was one of the earliest transcontinental highways for automobiles across the United States. Conceived in 1912 by Indiana entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher and formally dedicated October 31, 1913, the named highway ran coast-to-coast from Times Square in New York City west to Lincoln Park in San Francisco, originally through 13 states, including the length of Pennsylvania, where Lincoln Highway memorabilia collecting is strong.
- Mural artist: Wayne Fettro.
- Gift/purchase; with support of the Pew Charitable Trusts; 2019; (DLC/PP-2019:012)
- Forms part of Carol M. Highsmith's America Project in the Carol M. Highsmith Archive.
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Digital Id: highsm 58277 https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/highsm.58277
Lincoln highway ...
Teaching Notes
8 page booklet explaining why the Lincoln Highway was built
Gallery of pages:
https://www.loc.gov/search/?fa=segmentof:scd2015.00079584058/&q=Lincoln+highway&st=gallery
Page 3 explains why the highway was built.
Reference link: http://www.loc.gov/item/14013478
Reference note
Contributor Names: Davis, Charles Henry, 1865-
Lincoln Highway Association.
National Highways Association.
Created / Published: [Boston, The Everett press company] c1914.
Subject Headings: - Roads--United States
Notes: - Also available in digital form on the Library of Congress Web site.
Digital Id: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gdc/scd2015.00079584058
The Lincoln Highway Map
Teaching Notes
Examine the Lincoln Highway map, image 7 in the booklet
What states does the highway go through?
What highways have replaced it?
Have you visited any of these cities or areas?
Use Library of Congress Teachers Page Tool Analyzing maps. https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/teachers/getting-started-with-primary-sources/documents/Analyzing_Maps.pdf
6 - 8 9 - 12 13+ Social Studies/History Lincoln Highway
The Road to Prosperity
Teaching Notes
Watch “The Road to Prosperity” video. Use the primary source analysis tool to think about the intent and tone of the video. Discuss the propoganda that is part of the video.
Lincoln Highway Bridge, Spanning Mud Creek at Fifth Street, Tama, Tama County, IA
Teaching Notes
View the images; locate Tama on a map
Reference link: http://www.loc.gov/item/ia0451/
Reference note
Contributor Names: Historic American Engineering Record, creator
Created / Published: Documentation compiled after 1968
Notes: - Significance: In September 1912, the Midwestern visionary Carl Fisher proposed to group of automotive businessmen a plan to build a road spanning from coast to coast. The route, later named the Lincoln Highway, would start in New York City, finish in San Francisco, an cross 358 miles through the state of Iowa on the way. This monumental undertaking was to be privately funded with the towns and counties profiting from its passage sharing a large part of the construction costs. Thus, a widespread advertisement campaign for the transcontinental highway was launched with each community along its path trying to outdo the next in making itself the most desirable rest stop. The town of Tama distinguished itself from the rest by constructing a special bridge for the route with the words "Lincoln Highway" spelled out in the concrete railing. This bridge remains a most unusual maker for this historic highway.
- Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N246
- Survey number: HAER IA-75
- National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 78001263
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
[Untitled photo, possibly related to: Grocery store and delicatessen off Lincoln Highway, Franklin Township, Bound Brook, New Jersey]
Teaching Notes
Look closely at the photo. What do you see? Use this Teachers Page tool to further understand and discuss this photo and others in the album
Reference link: http://www.loc.gov/item/2017715019/
Reference note
Contributor Names: Mydans, Carl, photographer
United States. Resettlement Administration.
Created / Published: [1936 Feb.]
Subject Headings: - United States--New Jersey--Bound Brook
Genre: Nitrate negatives
Notes: - Title and other information from a possibly related negative. Image came to Library of Congress untitled. (There was no caption for this image in the FSA/OWI shelflist.)
- Appears to be related to negative LC-USF33-000437-M1 https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa1997001194/PP/
- Transfer; United States. Office of War Information. Overseas Picture Division. Washington Division; 1944.
- More information about the FSA/OWI Collection is available at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.fsaowi
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, DC 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Digital Id: fsa 8a01195 //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8a01195
Lincoln Highway emblem embedded in the Hopley Monument in Bucyrus, a small city in central Ohio that lies along the historic, originally two-lane, highway that was the first U.S. roadway, numbered U.S. 30 in much of its route, to cross the entire United States in the 1930s
Teaching Notes
Lincoln Highway emblem embedded in the Hopley Monument in Bucyrus, a small city in central Ohio that lies along the historic, originally two-lane, highway that was the first U.S. roadway, numbered U.S. 30 in much of its route, to cross the entire United States in the 1930s
Reference link: http://www.loc.gov/item/2016632429/
Reference note
Contributor Names: Highsmith, Carol M., 1946-, photographer
Created / Published: 2016-10- 07.
Subject Headings: - United States--Ohio--Crawford County--Bucyrus
- America
- Lincoln Highway
- Lincoln Highway markers
- Abraham Lincoln
- Hopley monument
- John Edward Hopley
Genre: Digital photographs--Color--2010-2020
Notes: - Title, date and keywords based on information provided by the photographer.
- The monument, erected in 1929, honors John Edward Hopley, a Bucyrus newspaper editor who fiercely championed the idea of a coast-to-coast highway. Much of the road, named for U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, is now four-lane, and parts have been subsumed into stretches of limited- access freeways.
- Credit line: Photographs in the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.
- Purchase; Carol M. Highsmith Photography, Inc.; 2016; (DLC/PP-2016:103-4).
- Forms part of the Carol M. Highsmith Archive.
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Digital Id: highsm 41611 //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/highsm.41611
Old gasoline pump
Teaching Notes
Useful detail from the full image title:
An old gasoline pump, later repainted as an art piece along old U.S. 30, known as the Lincoln Highway in McKnightstown, Pennsylvania. Such painted pumps are featured in several places in the state along that historic road. One of the earliest transcontinental highways in the United States, the road, named for U.S. president Abraham Lincoln, was conceived in 1912 by Indiana entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher and dedicated in 1913. The Lincoln Highway ran coast-to-coast from Times Square in New York City west to Lincoln Park in San Francisco, originally through 13 states.
Pulaski Skyway, Spanning Passaic & Hackensack Rivers, Jersey City, Hudson County, NJ
Teaching Notes
Use the photo analysis tool to further enjoy the photo
Reference link: http://www.loc.gov/item/nj0900/
Reference note
Contributor Names: Historic American Engineering Record, creator
New Jersey State Highway Department
Created / Published: Documentation compiled after 1968
Subject Headings: - steel truss bridges
- bridge construction
- civil engineering
- Lincoln Highway
- vehicular bridges
- New Jersey -- Hudson County -- Jersey City
Notes: - Significance: The "skyway" was built as part of the transcontinental Lincoln Highway and was among the first limited access "super highways" in the United States.
- Survey number: HAER NJ-34
- Building/structure dates: 1932 Initial Construction
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Lincoln Highway, 3 mile segment south of Business I-80 & ALT 93 intersection, West Wendover, Elko County, NV
Teaching Notes
The boys in the novel did not visit Nevada or any other western states , but had would have if their plans had not gone awry.
What other historic highway exsits in the Midwest and southwest?
6 - 8 9 - 12 13+ Social Studies/History Lincoln Highway
Reference link: http://www.loc.gov/item/nv0245/
Reference note
Contributor Names: Historic American Engineering Record, creator
Fisher, Carl
Hoag, Gael S
Western Cultural Resource Management, contractor
Athearn, Frederic J, photographer
Mehls, Steven F, historian
Rusco, Elmer, historian
Rusco, Mary, historian
Created / Published: Documentation compiled after 1968
Subject Headings: - highways
- transportation
- Lincoln Highway
- Nevada -- Elko County -- West Wendover
Notes: - Significance: This segment of the Lincoln Highway was one to the last two pieces of that highway to be completed in the United States and was the final link in the route to make the Lincoln Way a true coast to coast highway. Moreover, this segment is intimately associated with western interstate battles concerning highway routes during the early years of Federal aid to states for road construction in the 1910's and 1920's.
- Survey number: HAER NV-28
- Building/structure dates: 1928-1930 Initial Construction
- Building/structure dates: 1958 Subsequent Work
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
The end of the road: New York City
Teaching Notes
Sign marking the eastern terminus of the Lincoln Highway at the intersection of
42nd Street and Broadway, Times Square, New York City
The Interstate's Forgotten Code
Teaching Notes
This fast-paced video explains the Interstate numbering system and could be used in any geography class (along with primary sources, of course).
Map of number system
The Lincoln Highway route : it's ideals and purposes : a connected improved highway extending from New York City to San Francisco ...
Teaching Notes
Blog post from World’s Revealed Geography & Maps at the Library of Congress Maps of the Good Roads Movement adds to the story of the Interstate Highways.
Reference link: http://www.loc.gov/item/2012593369/
Reference note
Contributor Names: Schmid, Frank S.
Created / Published: Fort Wayne, Ind. : Frank S. Schmid, [1914?]
Subject Headings: - Roads--United States--Maps
- Lincoln Highway--Maps
- United States
Genre: Road maps
Notes: - "Copyrighted by Frank S. Schmid."
- Available also through the Library of Congress Web site as a raster image.
- Includes text.
Repository: Library of Congress Geography and Map Division Washington, D.C. 20540-4650 USA dcu
Digital Id: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g3701p.ct002445