| "The Library of Congress has begun a major effort to acquire John Margolies’s unparalleled photographic archive of over 13,000 images, to make them a part of the collections of America’s oldest federal cultural institution. Few works are more truly American, democratic, and individualistic than the roadside and main street American icons documented and thereby preserved by Margolies. His images promise to endure, inspire, and inform long after the structures they represent have vanished. With the successful acquisition of the entire archive, these photographs will become available to all, and for posterity, without restrictions on their use." |
| C. Ford Peatross, Founding Director Center for Architecture, Design and Engineering Prints and Photographs Division The Library of Congress |
| "This is a forgotten portion of the great American architectural heritage, and John Margolies is perhaps the leading historian in this field.... It is vital for us ... to see America through his eyes." |
| Philip Johnson, The End of the Road |
| "The results [the photographs] are beautiful, comical, sad, and often sublime." |
| "Book review: Roadside America" The New Yorker August 16 & 23, 2010 |
| "The John Margolies archive of photographs of American roadside architecture is acknowledged as the most comprehensive study of this subject extant." |
| Leanne Mella Visual Arts Program Specialist United States Department of State |
| "Some people are obsessed with collecting Louis XIV furniture, others with beer cans or butterflies. John Margolies is obsessed with the architectural flora and fauna of American main streets, roadsides, movie theaters and resort areas--the exotic, improvisational, outrageous furnishings of the great open spaces. In the process he has helped preserve a portion of our common heritage by documenting thousands of buildings, many of them just months or even days before the bulldozers were to carry them away for good." |
| Phil Patton, Smithsonian Magazine |
| "Mr. Margolies, America's premier chronicler of architectural kitsch, is known for books that celebrate the weird delights of miniature golf courses, fading Catskills resorts and dilapidated roadside diners." |
| Herbert Muschamp, The New York Times |
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