RECENTLY RELEASED
Designs Underfoot: The Art of Manhole Covers in New
York City By Diana Stuart
20 October 2003
Diana Stuart holds a title that is unusual, even for New York City.
She is Gotham's Manhole Cover Lady. For the past decade, she has
photographed manhole covers, researched the foundries where they were
made, and led walking tours where she points out their unsung beauty. As
head of the Society for the Preservation
of New York City Manhole Covers, she has even fought (unsuccessfully) to
give the 600,000 manhole covers in New York City landmark status.
This spring, Stuart published a book about the designs, origins and
history of the city's manholes, called Designs Underfoot: The Art of
Manhole Covers in New York City (Design Books, 127 pp., 2003). "One day
I glanced down and found myself staring at a beautifully designed
manhole cover. Then I slowly discovered the wealth of different designs
decorating New York City's streets. Astonished by the range of designs,
I began to photograph covers in all five boroughs," Stuart writes about
her beginnings as a manhole cover expert.
The book is largely a catalog of covers in the style of an
architectural guidebook, with black and white photographs organized by
details like "Flower Images," "Diamonds and Snowflakes," and "Of Unusual
Historical Significance." Some designs are more captivating than
others, but Stuart also uses the manhole covers to talk about city
history.
The descriptions give a history of iron works companies that operated
in New York City, like Cornell's Iron Works, which opened in the 1840s
on Centre Street in Lower Manhattan, and Williamsburg's Healey Iron
Works. They also give details about 19th century utility companies, like
Brooklyn Union Gas, New York Telephone, and of course Consolidated
Edison Company of New York.
Because the book gives precise locations for each of the nearly 400
manhole covers Stuart describes, any potential manhole cover enthusiast
who wants to go take a closer look at the covers can do so. However, in
what Stuart has called "real tragedies," some of them have already been
paved over.
|
|
RECENTLY RELEASED | • THE GOOD LIFE by Jay McInerney
• FIVE FAMILIES: THE RISE, DECLINE, AND RESURGENCE OF THE OF AMERICA'S MOST POWERFUL MAFIA EMPIRES by Selwyn Raab
• THE SKY'S THE LIMIT by Steven Gaines
• THE DAME FOR HIRE by Sandra Scoppettone
• HOUR OF THE CAT by Peter Quinn
| LIBRARY PICK
Classics, favorites, and old stand-bys | • MOTHERLESS BROOKLYN by Jonathan Lethem • COLOSSUS OF NEW YORK: A CITY IN 13 PARTS by Colson Whitehead • GRAND CENTRAL WINTER by Lee Stringer • INTUITIONIST by Colson Whitehead • CELLULOID SKYLINE: NEW YORK AND THE MOVIES by James Sanders | BOOKSHELF
Articles About Books That Share A Genre Or Topic | • FIVE CHILDREN'S CLASSICS
• NEW YORK CITY'S BLACK HISTORY
• BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF 2003 FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
• BEST FICTION BOOKS OF 2003 FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
• BOOKS ABOUT NEW YORK NIGHTLIFE
| BEST NYC BOOKS BY
TOPIC Selected by our topic contributors | Albany, Arts, Children, Civil Rights, Community Development, Crime, Demographics, Economy, Education, Environment, Finance, Health, Housing, Immigrants, Land Use, Law, Measuring Up, Parks, Searchlight, Social Services, Tech, Transportation, Voting, Waterfront
| |