Transit Tuesday – Cyril E. Power

Posted on by February 25, 2019

Yes, I’m a museum professional, but that doesn’t mean I don’t use museum databases to see objects I enjoy when I get home. I’m responsible for long-term preservation activities for a group of objects from Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, so as a generalist researcher using museum databases, I tend to relax looking for things very different from the ones I work with. Regular readers are familiar with my penchant for trains, tangled up somewhere in the back of my brain with nostalgia, wanderlust, and technological advance. I was looking for some train themed collections and came upon this linocut of London Tube riders by Cyril Edward Power (17 December 1872 – 25 May 1951). I love the tension; the clatter of the subway is conveyed through the jangle of color and off angle -though anyone who’s taken the Tube knows it’s not nearly this orderly.

Cyril E. Powers. The Tube Train. National Gallery of Art. NGA 90.172.

Cyril E. Powers. The Tube Train. National Gallery of Art. NGA 90.172.

Posted in Art, History, Material Culture, Museums, Libraries, and Archives, Railroads, Transportation, Urban Life Tagged , , , , , , permalink

About Becky Fifield

Becky Fifield is a cultural heritage professional with 25 years experience in institutions large and small. She is currently Head of Collection Management for the Special Collections of the New York Public Library. An advocate for preventive conservation, Ms. Fifield is a Professional Associate of the American Institute for Conservation, Chair of the AIC Collection Care Network, and former Chair of Alliance for Response NYC. She is also a scholar of 18th century female unfree labor and dress. There's a bit of pun in the title The Still Room, delineating a quiet space brimming with the ingredients of memory, where consideration, analysis, and wordcraft can take place. Ms. Fifield’s interests include museum practice, dress history, historic preservation, transit, social and women’s history, food, current events, geneaology, roadtrips, and considerations on general sense of place. Becky and her husband, Dr. V, live in the Hudson Valley.

Comments are closed.