NEW YORK—The subway map, which hundreds of thousands of commuters either gaze at bewilderingly or glance at briefly, wasn’t always so colorful and simple to read—there has been an evolution in designs over decades.
The New York Transit Museum presented a taste of its collection of historic subway maps Wednesday, in honor of the 40th anniversary of Massimo Vignelli’s iconic design.
A celebrated designer, Vignelli is known for creating the most aesthetic subway map in New York, which the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) found to be a little off, geographically speaking.
Vignelli’s 50th Street Broadway station appeared on the west side of 8th Avenue, when it is actually in the East. His Central Park was also drawn as a square instead of a rectangle. The current design replaced Vignelli’s in 1979.
Before Vignelli, New York subway maps emphasized geographic accuracy between stops, which was great, but it also led to tangling angles. Vignelli’s map introduced the present lines that ran at 45-degree and 90-degree angles in 1972.
The most groundbreaking design may have been the 1968 design. Before then, trains were named after their terminal points. Some lines had several names, while others shared the same ones.
The 1968 map was the first to separate the train lines by colors, letters, and numbers. This design was largely due to the growing consideration that not everyone in New York reads English.
Museum Collection
The New York Transit Museum has collected a plethora of artifacts, tools, periodicals, and 1,400 maps since its opening in 1976. Many maps were elaborate plans that never came to fruition.
The museum was where Brian Selznick did his research for his award-winning book, The Invention of Hugo Cabret. The book was later turned into the multimillion dollar film Hugo. The setting was based on authentic, historical street names and locations in New York.
From 1940–1971, Alexander Grudzinski thought he was doing something ordinary by keeping a diary throughout his years as a conductor and freight brakeman at the Long Island Rail Road.
“People don’t think of keeping this stuff, but for those that do, we rely heavily on that,” said Carey Stumm, the museum’s archivist.
Grudzinski’s family donated his diary and records of his work to the museum after his death in 2007.
“That was one of my favorite collections that we obtained while I’ve been the archivist here,” Stumm said. “Just hearing these stories, dealing with the personal side of these people’s collection.”
The museum is currently working on a book and a Grand Central Terminal exhibit for its centennial in 2013.
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