The Oklahoma History Center Museum will present Faces of the Mother Road: The Lost Portraits of S. J. Tyler, an exhibition of photographs by an Afton photographer whose glass-plate negatives were rediscovered in 2023.

Tyler operated a photography studio in Afton beginning in 1913, more than a decade before Route 66 was established. For nearly forty years, he photographed the people who lived, worked, and traveled through the northeastern Oklahoma town. Tyler’s portraits, created between 1913 and 1950, are a time capsule of everyday lives and the extraordinary diversity that flourished along Route 66.

Photo historian Adam Forgash developed Faces of the Mother Road after rediscovering Tyler’s negatives. The exhibition features portraits printed from the original glass-plate negatives and brings these forgotten faces back to Oklahoma.

“What makes these photographs so compelling is the detail and care Tyler put into each portrait,” said Dr. Michaela Wegman, curator at the Oklahoma History Center Museum. “Each photograph is an opportunity to look closely at the faces of real people who lived in Afton and traveled on Route 66.”

Faces of the Mother Road will remain on view through the end of April 2027 at the Oklahoma History Center Museum.

Eight portraits captured by S. J. Tyler, 1913–1950.