Route 66 Turns 100, and Two of Its Foremost Chroniclers Tell the Story

America’s Mother Road is turning 100, and few people know its 2,448 miles better than Jim Ross and Shellee Graham. On Thursday, July 9, the husband-and-wife authors headline an illustrated webinar hosted by the Pasadena Museum of History, drawing on images from their new book, “Route 66: The First 100 Years.”

Route 66 rose with the automobile age, carried Dust Bowl migrants west, and later sparked a mid-century vacation boom — a road, as the authors tell it, of dreamers, road-trippers and nomads seeking escape and adventure across the best and worst of times. Ross is a Route 66 historian who has written or coauthored 10 books and publishes a well-known map series of the route; Graham is a photographer, artist and author who has produced five books of her own. The pair live along the route near Arcadia, Oklahoma.

Their centennial volume has drawn wide notice, named one of Smithsonian magazine’s top 10 travel books of 2025 and carrying a foreword by Michael Wallis. The Zoom presentation traces the highway’s life, decline and revival through hundreds of photographs, many of them vintage.

The program takes place on Zoom from 3 to 4:30 p.m., and a link is sent to registered participants the day before. It will be recorded and made available to attendees through Thursday, July 16.

“Route 66: The First 100 Years” with Jim Ross and Shellee Graham will take place on Zoom on Thursday, July 9 from 3 to 4:30 p.m., presented by the Pasadena Museum of History. For more information, call (626) 577-1660 or visit pasadenahistory.org.