Inspection of City Hall Subway Station, 1904. Courtesy of Parsons Brinckerhoff Inc.

The Subway at 100 examines the subway from the perspectives of its engineering and design, its impact on social and economic development, and its effect on popular culture. The subway's story is told through correspondence, graphics, pamphlets, sheet music, cartoons, and realia -- including early brass and bronze station fixtures, porcelain signage, and tools; commemorative medals, buttons, and badges; and samples from the maze of tickets, transfers, special passes, and tokens that preceded the MetroCard as admission "currency." Century-old photographs document the construction phase of the subway system, which began in March 1900 and honed many innovative engineering techniques, including the use of "cut-and-cover" (open excavation) construction that became the standard for subway tunneling for almost 60 years. Other images capture underground aesthetics, from the beautiful iron artwork fabricated by the Hecla Iron Works foundry to the ceramic tiling that served both to beautify and to identify stations.

The first electric subway opened in Manhattan on October 27, 1904. The original 9.1-mile subway line consisted of 28 stations, and it took 26 minutes for the first train to go along Broadway from City Hall to the final stop at 145 Street. The exhibition features an original bronze light fixture from that time, a bronze clerk's screen, and a wooden ticket chopper, as well as an opening day photograph at the City Hall station. Other items on view include subway signage, designs for subway cars and interiors, and images of the Roy Lichtenstein mural that was unveiled at the 42nd Street station this past year.

Reports and published works illustrate the growth and social and economic importance of the subway system to New York City, touching on subjects such as public versus private ownership, ergonomic design, and expansion of the City to the "subway suburbs." The impact of the subway on the arts is noted in the exhibition. Music has played a part in the life of the subway from its earliest days. In addition to a 1904 photograph of the subway band, which featured musical employees, the exhibition displays sheet music of such songs as The Subway Glide (1907), the record album from the Broadway musical Subways are for Sleeping  and a photograph of the subway scene from the original Broadway production of On the Town.

Although the exhibition focuses primarily on General Parsons as the subway's chief engineer, his prominence as a military engineering specialist, an educator, and as a collector of rare manuscripts will also be explored. His World War I engineering notebook and his copy of Aristotelis Mechanica (1566) are among the items on display. "General Parsons was a renaissance man, and his collection gives SIBL a particular and inclusive view of what was entailed in building the subway and what it has meant to the vitality of New York City," stated Kristin McDonough, the Robert and Joyce Menschel Director of the Science, Industry and Business Library. As General Parsons himself observed years after the subway opened, "I was 35 years of age when I become chief engineer of the Rapid Transit Commission. When I look back now, I am glad I was not older. I doubt if I could now undertake or would undertake such a work under similar conditions. But I had the enthusiasm of youth and inexperience. If I had fully realized what was ahead of me, I do not think I would have attempted the work. As it was, I was treated as a visionary. Some of my friends spoke pityingly of my wasting my time on what they considered a dream."

Many items on view are drawn from the Library's William Barclay Parsons Collection; other materials are on loan from the G.S. Cuhaj Collection, the Parsons Brinckerhoff Inc. archives, The Museum of American Financial History, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, the New York Transit Museum, and Columbia University.

Public Programs

The Science, Industry and Business Library will present a series of programs related to the exhibition. Three have been scheduled at this date. All the lectures will be held in Room 018, Conference Center, Lower Level of SIBL. They are free and open to the public. Limited seating is available on a first come, first served basis. For additional information about programs, telephone (212) 592-7000.

Wednesday, March 31, 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Evolution of Tunneling in New York City. A slide lecture presented by James E. Monsees, Senior Vice President and Technical Director of Underground Structures, Parsons Brinckerhoff Inc.

Tuesday, April 6, 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.
General Parsons: The Renaissance Man. A presentation by James L. Lammie, Parsons Brinckerhoff, about William Barclay Parsons, the Chief Engineer for the construction of the first underground subway in New York City that opened to the public on October 27, 1904.

Thursday, April 22, 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Medals and Tokens of the New York City Subway. An illustrated presentation by George Cuhaj, Collector.

General William Barclay Parsons (1859-1932) was born into a socially prominent New York family. He graduated from Columbia College and earned an advanced degree in civil engineering from Columbia University's School of Mines.  In 1885, after establishing his own firm, he built several railroads in the western part of the United States, as well as a railroad in Jamaica, West Indies. In 1891 he was chosen deputy chief engineer of the Steinway Commission, which was the forerunner of New York's Rapid Transit Commission. Then in 1894, he was appointed Chief Engineer of the Rapid Transit Commission. While conducting a survey for railroads in China, Parsons received word that New York City -- after 32 years of trying -- was finally going to begin the construction of its new subway. He returned to New York and, from 1899 until 1904, totally devoted himself to building the subway. Two months after the opening, Parson resigned as chief engineer.  Then, as a member of the Isthmian Canal Commission and the Board of Consulting Engineers for the Panama Canal, he made a survey of the Canal Zone and reported to President Theodore Roosevelt on the practicality of building a sea-level canal in Panama.  In 1905, he was named chief engineer of the Cape Cod Canal.  He was appointed chairman of the Joint Commis-sion of Engineering Societies, whose efforts to organize an engineering reserve for the United States Army concluded with the organization of the Officers Reserve Corps in 1916.  He was commissioned a major in the 11th Engineers -- a regiment that was among the first to be sent to France. Parsons spent the last part of his life researching and writing his most famous publication, Engineers and Engineering in the Renaissance. During his lifetime he acquired an international reputation and received a citation from the United States, the Distinguished Service Order from Great Britain, the order of the Crown from Belgium, and the Legion of Honor from France.
 

The Subway at 100: General William Barclay Parsons and the Birth of the NYC Subway will be on view from March 23 through December 31, 2004 at The New York Public Library's Science, Industry and Business Library in Healy Hall, 188 Madison Avenue at 34th Street, New York.  Exhibition hours are Tuesday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m; closed Sundays, Mondays, and holidays.  Admission is free.  For exhibition information, telephone 212.869.8089 or visit the Library's website at www.nypl.org.

Science, Industry and Business Library

The Science, Industry and Business Library (SIBL), one of the four research libraries of The New York Public Library, is the nation's largest public information center devoted solely to science and business. Its circulating and noncirculating collections are enhanced by services and electronic resources geared to the needs of science and business users for quick, efficient access to accurate, up-to-date information.

Reflecting advances in information and computer technology, SIBL houses multi-format collections. An Electronic Information Center (EIC), with 73 workstations, connects users to the hundreds of internal and external electronic information resources. The EIC is supported by a 39-workstation Electronic Training Center (ETC). SIBL also offers a circulating library of approximately 40,000 titles, and a noncirculating research collection of 1.3 million volumes.

SIBL's collections feature a wide range of materials, including electronic business and science resources from networked CD-ROMs, online services, and the Internet; a comprehensive collection of U.S. and foreign government documents, patents, local laws, New York City information, and demographics; extensive international trade and business resources; extensive applied science and technology resources that support business development; U.S. and foreign industrial directories and buyers' guides; corporate annual reports, both domestic and foreign, in microfiche and electronic formats; financial information services (loose-leafs, stock reporting services, and newsletters); and handbooks and reference works.

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Contacts: Rima Corben or Herb Scher at 212.704.8600.

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