Tarleton State University professor Dr. T. Lindsay Baker was awarded the Popular Culture Association for his book, “Portrait of Route 66: Images from the Curt Teich Postcard Archives,” which was published in 2016.

“Professors Ray Browne and Russell Nye founded the Popular Culture Association in 1971, separating it from the larger American Studies Association. They believed the country needed an organization to examine material culture, motion pictures, popular music and comics. In 1979, it was joined by the American Culture Association, and together they foster the intellectual study of popular culture,” a Tarleton press release stated.

Baker is a full time history professor and an employee at the Tarleton Museum of Industrial History.

The book showcases a collection of historic photographs depicting locations along old U.S. Highway 66 between Chicago and Los Angeles.

“I was doing research on a different topic on the US. In 2014 I went to the archives Curt Teich, which are in Chicago,” Baker said.

From then, he requested 40 percent of the files that had survived from the 1920-60’s. He requested the files that the collection had and many were original black and white photographs. These were taken in the days before photography.

Customers would send in their black and white photographs as the basis of the artwork for the photographs and gave the photographer different colors of what the postcard should have on it. They were unused black and white photographs showing different photographs from the highway.

No other historian had gone in and requested these photographs. Dr. Baker came home with 1500 photos of black and white postcards and archives. His publisher was so impressed with what he had that he had to stop what he was doing and work on those archives/photographs.

For two years, he prepared the manuscript that would showcase the black and white photographs and the postcards. This allowed the Oklahoma press to showcase the original photos and to be the first publisher to do it.

“I was totally surprised. I didn’t know that the book had been submitted for this particular recognition,” Baker said. “It came as a surprise when I received the e-mail.”

The edition is in full color and is a beautifully produced book. “On the right hand pages, there’s the original black and white photos and the colored postcard that the black and white image helped the photographers to make and on the left it’s the location of where they were taken.”