Route 66: Re-Defining an American Icon through Multiple Stories, Places, and Publics

Historic Route 66 is an icon of personal mobility and the American Dream. However, were the opportunities of the automobile and highway the same for everyone? Route 66 was a mirror-reflection of the social and political values of its time, and its cultural landscape reveals multiple stories that are often not told in the popular narrative. This session will show how differing social experiences of class, race and gender are reflected in the historic built environment, and what the National Park Service and others are doing to preserve the multiple narratives and places of the highway.

Kaisa Barthuli is Program Manager of the National Park Service Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program. Through a program of grants and technical assistance, she works with individuals, nonprofit organizations, communities, and government agencies to preserve the special places and stories of historic Route 66 from Chicago to Santa Monica. Kaisa began her career with the National Park Service in 1990, and has worked in over 20 National Park Service units in the area of cultural resource management. She holds a B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley; holds a Graduate Certificate in Historic Preservation from the University of New Mexico, and has completed an advanced program in heritage conservation through the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Conservation of Cultural Property (ICCROM).

Free and open to the public.

Organized as part of the Preservation Lecture Series, an initiative of the Historic Preservation Program at Columbia GSAPP