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Reviews
| Designs Underfoot: The Art of Manhole Covers in New York City. By Diana Stuart. Gulford, Conn.: Design Books, 2003. 129 pp., illus., bibl., index. $29.99 hb (ISBN 1-58574-639-8).
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Although the number of books devoted to the humble manhole cover is few, they rival the most lofty of subject matters in the devotion and passion of their authors. Shirley MacGregor, an American quilt instructor living in Japan, was so inspired by the intricate manhole covers she saw while out for morning jogs there that she created an award-winning manhole cover quilt. Not satisfied with honoring one design in fabric, she sent pictures of different Japanese manhole covers to quilters around the world, eventually publishing two books of the resulting creations: Quilting with Manhole Covers (1999) and Treasures Underfoot (2001). Industrial art aficionados Mimi and Robert Melnick became hooked when they tried to buy a sewer manhole cover to hang on the wall behind their couch. Hundreds of photographs, a nationwide survey, and years of research later, they created Manhole Covers (1994), an elegant and thorough reference. Diana Stuart, also known as "the manhole cover lady," became fascinated with the designs she found on New York City streets and developed a reputation for her manhole-cover slide lectures and walking tours. She has written the latest book dedicated to what she describes as "stellar artifacts exhibiting the cutting edge of 19th century design and craftsmanship" (p. 15).
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Designs Underfoot: The Art of Manhole Covers in New York City features nearly 400 designs photographed by Stuart. After a brief introduction describing the history, use, and manufacture of manhole covers, the book is organized as columns of photographs with flanking captions of text that include the location and purpose of the manhole cover. The images lack the coffee table book majesty of those in Mimi and Robert Melnick's book, largely due to their smaller size (2 1/2 × 2 1/2 inch) and busier layout. However, the black-and-white images are clear and detailed. Reading the variety of photo locations provides a glimpse of Stuart's tenacity. There are manhole covers photographed in the middle of busy intersections, from behind fences, at airports, in a collector's patio, by overpasses, and at several locations left to the imagination, with a forewarning of "be careful" to those who may venture to find them. A striking number of photographs included in the book are of manhole covers that have now disappeared from the streets. An advocate for providing manhole covers with landmark status and protection, Stuart notes, with obvious heartbreak, when she believes her photograph to be the only record of a particular design.
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The book features nearly 150 years of design in the form of cast-iron coal chutes; water meters; vault illuminators; and gas, sewer, electric, and other access covers. The variety is fascinating, with designs ranging from the sleekest geometric graphics to exuberant Victorian foliage. Stuart points out that manhole covers are the last vestiges of long-forgotten utilities, companies, and municipal departments, and she unravels the cryptic initials with impressive sleuthing. One of the more curious manhole covers featured in the book has the initials of a bureau that never existed, probably made during the corrupt "Tammany Hall" era when "Boss" Tweed was commissioner of the Department of Public Works.
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Although some manhole cover designs have foundry names, addresses, or dates, many depict only a graphic design. However, even seemingly straightforward information is difficult to interpret. For example, a date on a manhole cover may refer to a patented feature, the date of manufacture, or the date the design was originally created although not necessarily reproduced. Research is further complicated because foundries, in the past, kept few if any records about their manhole covers, and designers were anonymous. Stuart supplements her photograph captions with extensive research about the New York City foundries that produced the covers or with chatty information, surely culled from her tours, about the area where the manhole cover can be found, including comments on local architecture and attractions, neighborhood facts and history, and even suggestions for bird watching. Stuart's writing style, however, is sometimes rambling and haphazard in its enthusiasm. Her introduction, for example, contains an extremely detailed section devoted entirely to the Croton water supply, while sewage and other equally relevant works and utilities are barely mentioned.
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Stuart's book has the layout and feel of a guidebook and even includes a brief section on tour tips. As such, the manhole covers would have been better organized by neighborhood or location to facilitate viewing. Instead, the manhole covers are mainly divided into chapters devoted to design features. Final, vague, catchall chapters render this format all but useless for identification purposes. For example, vault illuminators, cast-iron disks, or square panels set with round glass baubles to light the space below are located in three separate chapters. The majority of vault illuminator examples are found in "From Decorative to Unitarian, Even Tree Grates" and "Special Collections and Families," with only a single example to be found in "Polka Dots, Pom Poms, and Bubbles," the chapter that describes the dominant design element. Because many of the photograph captions have information that relates specifically to the location of the manhole cover, the result is as frustrating and fragmented as a tour given out of order.
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| Designs Underfoot: The Art of Manhole Covers in New York City is a very personal guide and the result of Stuart's impressive work documenting, researching, and fighting for the preservation of manhole covers. Although the author's impressive knowledge and fascinating collection of photographs are poorly served by the book's organizational format, it is difficult to not appreciate the importance of Stuart's work and the obvious labor of love. |
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