Faces of the Mother Road:
The Lost Portraits of S. J. Tyler
Opening Friday, October 16
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 40 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.
Faces of the Mother Road will open at the Oklahoma History Center Museum on October 16 and will remain on view through the end of April 2027.
