This collection contains papers, correspondence, photographs, and memorabilia relating to the Pitzer College class, Environmental Studies 65: Off the Mother Road. The class was offered by Michael Woodcock in the spring of 1999.

Course description: “Students in this interdisciplinary course will investigate a variety of issues relating to highway travel and the adjacent countryside. Topics will include road literature, roadside architecture, road etiquette, cultures, communities, commerce, water issues, oral histories and kitch. In 1938, a person could step into an automobile on the edge of Lake Michigan and drive on the newly paved US. Highway Route 66 all the way to the Pacific Ocean. It was the ‘great diagonal highway’ and become a symbol for personal betterment, romance and adventure. Sixty years later, Route 66 is a wonderful metaphor for examining such issues as the ecological impact of roads, automobile vacation culture, westward expansion and the ecology of speed. In conjunction with Environmental Studies 66, this course will culminate in a car caravan trip from Santa Monica to Chicago on what survives of Route 66.”