From 1969 to 2008, the writer and photographer John Margolies traveled the highways and back roads of America, photographing thousands of the unique and typically whimsical roadside signs and attractions that dotted the landscape—from a four-story fish to a “foam house of tomorrow” to a hotel shaped like a beagle and much more. The Library of Congress acquired the bulk of his collection in 2015, and shares the images online here. Collected below is just a small selection, a view of intriguing structures, some long gone, others still around but changed over the years.
Roadside America, Photographs by John Margolies
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Dinny the dinosaur, photographed at Claude Bell's Dinosaurs in 1978. Dinny was one of two large dinosaurs built adjacent to the Wheel Inn café in Cabazon, California. #
John Margolies / Library of Congress -
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A 20-foot-long fiberglass diver in a red bathing suit, created in 1959 for the Jantzen swimwear company, mounted atop Stamie's Smart Beach Wear, in Daytona Beach, Florida, photographed in 1990 #
John Margolies / Library of Congress -
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The upper half of a Big John statue sits on a trailer in Eldorado, Illinois, in 1993. The statue was one of a number of such statues built for the Big John grocery-store chain. #
John Margolies / Library of Congress -
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The Modern Diner stands in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, in 1978. First built in 1940, the diner moved in 1984 to a different location, where it remains today. #
John Margolies / Library of Congress -
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