This has been over 20 years in the making, but the Route 66 Photo Archive recently passed 50,000 images in its database.
Dries Bessels started the archive in June 2000. In late June this year, he announced the archive had passed more than 50,000 images in the database.
The photographs are sorted by location from east to west along Route 66, plus a lot of subchapters including big-letter postcards, the Dust Bowl, Burma Shave signs, “The Grapes of Wrath,” maps, brochures, billboards, and a lot more.
Bessels advised users on the home page:
The archive is and will remain free of charge and the pictures are donated by many different people. If the maker of the picture is known the name is added to the picturename.
If there are pictures you consider your property and want them to carry your name or be removed please do let me know.
If you have pictures you would like to have added to the archive also please do let me know.
You can send them via E-mail, Whatsapp, Messenger or Telegram.
I asked Bessels by email what prompted him to start the Route 66 photo site:
When I got involved with Route 66 I started collecting photo and quite early on I stuck them on one of my websites to share. In 2010 I became tour guide for motorcycle tours for groups of Dutch tourists and I often asked them for copies of the photos they had taken during the trip. That way the collection of photos rapidly grew. Via various sources on the internet, I added a lot of old photos from the various places and I started sorting them by location.
A few weeks back I built a dedicated website for it under its own URL. It was never a great plan, it ‘just happened’. Despite what one certain person says, the website is not there to generate money and as long as I manage it, access will be free for everyone.
Bessels admitted he ran out of room for the database a few weeks ago but switched to another hosting package with his provider.
Slightly more expensive but now I have room for approximately 8 times as many photos as there are now, so plenty of space. I do intend to add a large number of photos after my upcoming trip in July. 🙂
Bessels co-founded the Dutch Route 66 Association in the Netherlands and has guided numerous motorcycle tours down Route 66 over the years.
If you spent one minute gazing at each photo and spent 14 hours a day doing so, it would take you about two months to see all the photos in the collection.
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