Kickstarter campaign begun for U.S. 40 book

Frank Brusca, a longtime researcher of U.S. 40, has launched a Kickstarter campaign to help finish a book about the historic highway he’s been working on for decades.

This is a little off-topic, but Route 66 fans often are fans of other historic highways, including U.S. 40, aka the National Road. Brusca also has inspired a great many Route 66ers, and vice versa.

Here’s the video from Kickstarter that explains his project:

In essence, Brusca seeks to publish before-and-after photos of U.S. 40, comparing them to images from the 1953 George R. Stewart book, “U.S. 40: Cross Section of the United States.”

At each scene I have been shooting high resolution digital images, 35mm B&W negatives and chromes, and 360-degree virtual reality images. I am also shooting medium format B&W negatives and chromes using a camera that is an exact clone to the one used by Stewart. My goal is to have these images published in the first complete update to Stewart’s original book.

This work is being coordinated with the George Stewart estate.

Brusca seeks to raise $22,000 within 21 days. He’s offering goodies for financial backers, depending on the pledge amount.

In my personal library, I own a book called “U.S. 40 Today,” by Thomas R. Vale and Geraldine R. Vale. It had a similar format as Brusca’s project — comparing old Stewart photos to latter-day ones. However, the book was published in 1983, and in black-and-white photos only. Brusca’s project is going the extra mile — and more current, obviously.

Brusca’s project is much like Russell Olsen’s much-praised “The Complete Route 66 Lost and Found,” which combined two of Olsen’s earlier before-and-after photo books.

More about Brusca’s project can be found here. His U.S. 40 website also is worth checking out.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.