Riding the Highways in the Family Car Lecture presented by Susan S. Rugh

Park City Museum is proud to present Riding the Highways in the Family Car Lecture presented by Susan S. Rugh on Wednesday, April 18, 2018 from 5-6pm at the Education and Collections Center located at 2079 Sidewinder Drive. The family vacation was a middle-class ritual for Americans blessed by postwar prosperity in the mid-20th century. Route 66 was one of many “ribbons of highway” that facilitated long distance travel in the family car. Rugh will entertain us with stories of family vacations past–where people stayed, the sights they saw, and how they kept the children in the back seat happy.Susan Sessions Rugh is dean of Undergraduate Education at Brigham Young University. She holds a B.A. in History from BYU, and earned a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in American History. Rugh has been a professor of history at BYU for over 20 years. Her most recent book is Are We There Yet? The Golden Age of American Family Vacations, which received national attention for its nostalgic yet hard-hitting portrayal of road trips in postwar America. Her current book project, No Vacancy: The Rise and Decline of American Motels, is a cultural history of roadside lodging from the old mom-and-pop tourist courts to today’s landscape of family-owned corporate franchises and quirky independently-owned motels. A Utah native, she and her late husband, Thomas F. Rugh, are the parents of three sons, and grandparents to ten children. She is a member of the church choir and teaches Sunday School. She enjoys modern art museums, knitting, canoeing, and taking photos of decrepit motels on her travels around the country. Park City Museum is honored to host NRG! Exhibits’ America’s Road: The Journey of Route 66 exhibition. This exhibit shares the history of and fascination with one of the world’s most famous highways. On exhibit through May 6, 2018, America’s Road: The Journey of Route 66 includes photographs, narrative, music, and objects from the Route 66 heyday. It is appropriate for all ages.