The Illinois State Museum is launching a search for items connected to the heyday of Route 66 as it plans a collection linked to the Mother Road’s 100th anniversary coming up in 2026.
The collection is getting started with a donation of items from the collection of the late Bob Waldmire. The family of the noted Route 66 artist and collector, who died in 2009, has donated a number of his original drawings and paintings, as well as the hood of his 1965 Mustang, hand-painted with a map of the Chicago-to-L.A. highway.
The museum is now looking for more memorabilia related to businesses and attractions along the Illinois portion of the highway from its opening in 1926 until it was decommissioned in 1977.
