Its new exhibit, The Longest Stretch: Route 66 in Oklahoma, opened to the public on Saturday.
Dayne Robinson is one of the exhibit's curators. She said fitting a century of Oklahoma's Route 66 into an exhibit was a big challenge.
"Some people are like, 'Oh, well, it's Route 66, everybody tells the same thing,'" she said. "And I was like, 'Well, this is the state of Oklahoma. We can't just talk about Oklahoma City Route 66. We need to tell the entire story.'"
As the exhibit title suggests, Oklahoma boasts the longest drivable stretch of Route 66 among the eight states it passes through.
"We can't talk about each town because that's a lot," Robinson said. "I was like, well, how about we just pick a couple that aren't usually getting their story told?"
The exhibit takes visitors through the century and along the road at the same time. It starts in 1926 in Quapaw and Miami, near where Route 66 crosses into Northeast Oklahoma. Then it moves forward and westward until it reaches 21st-century Erick and Texola, on Oklahoma's western border.
Visitors can admire neon signage and vintage cars, and read about the road's role in 20 Oklahoma communities.
The exhibit is open now through 2027.
This report was produced by the Oklahoma Public Media Exchange, a collaboration of public media organizations. Help support collaborative journalism by donating at the link at the top of this webpage.
