THE ARCHIVE / Themes
Roadside Advertising.
An advertisement beside a road has a brief opportunity to become a memory. It may rely on repetition, a large word, an unusual silhouette or a sequence of messages along the journey. Margolies photographed these appeals as objects in their own right. Read the words, then look at the supports, surroundings and scale. The Wall Drug and South of the Border stories offer documented examples of how a distant promise could help define the destination itself.
128 photographs
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Colonial Gas sign-billboard, Route 40, St. Marys, Georgia
Wigwam Village Number 2 billboard, Route 31W, Cave City, Kentucky
Santa's Village parking lot sign, Route 2, Jefferson, New Hampshire
Rawhide City billboard, I-94, Mandan, North Dakota
South of the Border billboard, near Dillon, South Carolina
Crazy Ann's Fireworks sign, Route 441, Vonore, Tennessee
Moqui Indian Trading Post statue-sign, Route 40, Roosevelt, Utah
Police Hall of Fame entrance sign, Route 41, North Port, Florida
Everglades Safari billboard, Route 41, Dade County, Florida
Al's Oasis buffalo and covered wagon statues, B-90, Oacoma, South Dakota
Barn billboard, for Jesse James Hideout in Missouri, Clyde, Ohio
Trout Haven billboard, Route 385, Black Hills, South Dakota
Wall Drug final billboard, Wall, South Dakota
Storybook Gardens billboard, Lake Delton, WIsconsin
Comfort Motel sign (billboard? wreck), Route 17, Seals, Georgia
Alamo Plaza Hotel Courts billboard (wreck), Route 17, Georgia
Chicken cowboy billboard wreck, B-80, Elko, Nevada
South of the border, 13 mile billboard near Dillon, South Carolina
Marineland billboard, Florida
Crystal Cave billboard, Route 65, Springfield, Missouri
Exotic Animal Parade billboard, Route 65, Near Ozark, Ozark, Missouri
Call of the Wild Museum billboard, Route 60, Van Buren, Missouri
Rock City Birdhouse, Felton, Georgia
