Prints now available from the Vintage Roadside Photo Archive!

 Howdy everyone!

We wanted to share some news with you all - we're now offering prints from our archive of over 100,000 original vintage negatives, Kodachrome slides, and darkroom prints.

We've spent many years building the archive, and our most recent addition is a collection of several thousand original negatives shot by a Phoenix, Arizona Chamber of Commerce photographer in the 1950s. It's an amazing time capsule of vintage motels, gas stations, restaurants, dude ranches and more. We've also recently rescued several large batches of Kodachrome slides headed for the dumpster. Saving history any way we can. :-)

To create these prints we use a Howtek drum scanner and scan each negative at 5000 ppi. We're thrilled with the results and hope you'll enjoy seeing these glimpses of the past.

The first image below is a great look at Sheffler's Cafe in Salome, Arizona in the early 1950s. Sheffler's also served as a bus station and once contained a large taxidermy collection. In later years it was known as The Cactus Bar.

 

 Sheffler's Cafe & Soda Fountain - Salome, Arizona. Destroyed by fire in 2011. Print available here.

One of our favorites is this tourism photo from Arizona showing a model posing in front of a large Route 66 billboard. The billboard lists some of the amazing sights waiting for you as you cross the state.

Vintage Route 66 billboard. Print available here.

This image is somewhat unique in that the Santa Fe Restaurant building is still standing in Wickenburg.

 The Santa Fe Restaurant - Wickenburg, AZ. Now operating as the Gold Nugget Restaurant. Print available here.

Another favorite is this one showing the owners of the El Rancho (Once located on East Van Buren in Phoenix) posing next to their new neon sign. The original negative is a 4x5 b&w, however we've had a colorized version created using colors from an original postcard. This image was recently displayed at the Harley-Davidson Museum as an 8' print. (Also available in b&w.)

 Color version of the new neon sign at the El Rancho Motor Hotel - Phoenix, Arizona. Print available here.

A look inside a classic 1950s roadside cafe complete with counter & stools, comfortable booths, and a Royal Crown Cola menu showing you the day's offerings. There's also a collection of candy bars and cigars behind the cash register.

 Interior of a 1950s roadside cafe. Print available here.

We love old Kodachrome slides for many reasons, one of the biggest is that they were generally shot by tourists. People out there seeing the things we love to see - fellow roadtrippers from another generation!

We're lucky in that the Enchanted Forest is still there in upstate New York, but it's wonderful to see how it looked around the time it opened in 1956.

1950s Kodachrome of the Enchanted Forest of the Adirondacks amusement park in Old Forge, NY. Print available here.

All images are available in a variety of sizes. Images are also available for museum, publication or commercial use. If you'd like to inquire about usage please send us a message through our contact form here.

If you'd like to keep up with the images as we make them available you can follow along at our Facebook photography page here.

Safe travels,

Jeff & Kelly
Vintage Roadside