Ever take the N/R train and wonder why there are so many mosaic images of hats lining the platform walls?
It’s an art installation called Memories of Twenty-Third Street. Artist Keith Godard pays homage to the famous men and women who a century ago would have frequented the area around 23rd Street and Broadway, where the station is located.
“From the 1880s through the 1920s, 23rd Street was a major vaudeville, entertainment, and cultural district, and ‘Ladies Mile,’ the fashion and department store haven of the time, was located nearby,” states the MTA’s Arts for Transit website.
The hats are stand-ins for the celebs of the day, among them Lily Langtry, Sarah Bernhardt, Isadora Duncan, P.T. Barnum (that’s his top hat in the center photo).
Marie Curie and Winslow Homer are represented in the top pic, and the fancy hats of vaudeville actress Fay Templeton and suffragist Maud Nathan are in the third photo.
Tags: 23rd Street N/R train, Fay Templeton, hats of 23rd Street, Keith Godard, Marie Curie, Maud Nathan, Memories of Twenty-Third Street, N/R stop hat mosaics, P.T. Barnum, subway art 23rd Street, Winslow Homer
October 2, 2012 at 7:25 pm |
Reblogged this on The Living Room and commented:
This is from Ephemeral New York. Subway Art…love it !
October 3, 2012 at 7:35 pm |
For weeks last summer and into the fall, I got off at this station to do some temp work on 25th Street. I used to love looking at all these hats. And, if I am not mistaken, the hats are positioned according to the height of its “occupant”. Col. “Tom Thumb’s” hat is only three feet or so from the ground.
October 10, 2012 at 12:13 pm |
Rocco is correct about the hat heights — they match the documented heights of these people. Sometimes you can catch a person waiting on the platform in the right spot at the right height, and it looks like they’re wearing a hat. It’s cute. Here are some more photos:
http://visualingual.wordpress.com/2012/04/19/memories-of-twenty-third-street-by-keith-godard/