Event Information

Motoring Adventures: Pioneering Automobile Tourists in the American West, 1900-1925

Live Presentation via Zoom
Virtual Screening Room
Tuesday, Oct 13, 2026 12:00 PM
Arizona / Mountain Standard Time
Join the Arizona Historical Society and Dr. Peter Blodgett for an installment of the Arizona Road Trip: Route 66 and Beyond series.

Christened “the Mother Road” by John Steinbeck in 1939, Route 66 played a seminal part in shaping the evolution of the American Southwest during the the 1930s. Before that, however, the automobile enabled aspiring travelers to explore the landscapes of the trans-Mississippi West, long before Route 66 as we know it would be born. In this illustrated presentation, Dr. Blodgett will draw upon his extensive research into early twentieth century automobility in the American West to illuminate the roots of western motor travel from which the experiences of Route 66 would arise.

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 Peter J. Blodgett (PhD, Yale University) is the retired H. Russell Smith Foundation Curator of Western American History at the Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, and has written and spoken frequently about American national parks, recreation and leisure in the American West, and archives and manuscripts relating to western American history.  He is the author of Land of Golden Dreams:  California in the Gold Rush Decade, 1848-1858 (Huntington Library, 1999) and Motoring West:  Automobile Pioneers, 1900-1909 (Norman OK, 2015) as well as various essays in scholarly journals.