U.S. 40: Cross Section of the United States of America

                                                                                             ©Michael S Moore 2015 photograph

George R Stewart's U.S. 40: Cross Section of the United States of America is a fascinating look at the country when Stewart drove across it  in the summer of 1952, with his camera and his eye of landscape, townscape, and vernacular architecture. I followed his route 48 years later and tried to capture the same scenes he had photographed. Below was a street in--I can't check for certain, don't have my copy with me-- but I think it's Hays, Kansas. The two photographs--one from the summer of 1952, the other from the summer of 2000--suggest what's happened to the heartland over half a century:  small towns and cities have been drained of energy and life, especially neighborhood life. (I've got to do better scans of my US 40 photographs and post more of them on Autoliterate.) Meanwhile have a look at the post on Stewart and  Ellicott City, Maryland.