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The Hoboken (NJ) Historical
Museum and the Jersey City Landmarks Conservancy are
seeking individuals, institutions, libraries or
museums who possess rare and unique historical
collections related to the Hudson & Manhattan
Railroad for their upcoming show, "The Tubes:
Hudson & Manhattan's Rails Under the Hudson, 1874
to the Present-day PATH".
From January 19, 2003 through
April 13, 2003, the Hoboken Historical Museum and the
Jersey City Landmarks Conservancy will present
"The Tubes: Hudson & Manhattan's Rails Under
the Hudson, 1874 to the Present-day PATH," an
exhibition at the Hoboken Historical Museum on the
development of the Hudson Tunnels, from 1874 until
their completion over 30 years later, and their
inclusion into the PATH rapid transit system. Along
with text, photographs, diagrams, enlarged images from
postcards, and artifacts from the collection of the
Hoboken Historical Museum, "The Tubes" will
feature rare artifacts borrowed from private
collectors, early footage of the tunnels transferred
to video and viewable on a Museum monitor, and a model
of an H&M train that will move through the Museum
space on a miniature track installed along its
mezzanine. An eight-page, four-color brochure will
accompany the exhibit.
The exhibit will be presented in
wall panels and glass showcases in the Hoboken
Historical Museum's fully-accessible, ground-floor
level, 1,500-square-foot exhibition space in its
permanent home in a portion of the former Bethlehem
Steel Shipyard Machine Shop, 1301 Hudson Street,
Hoboken Sections include: "Sandhogs & The
Engineering Marvel," featuring numerous diagrams,
photographs, and accompanying text on the subaqueous
tunnel's 1874 conception by Colonel Dewitt Clinton
Haskin, and its construction and completion in 1908 by
resourceful engineers and an army of
"sandhogs" under the leadership of William
Gibbs McAdoo; "The Public Be Pleased,"
featuring old advertisements, photographs, and other
paper ephemera on the ways in which Hudson &
Manhattan's innovative philosophy was made manifest in
the company's cars, stations, and the treatment of
riders and employees, especially women; and "John
Oakman, An Architect and His Legacy," featuring
vintage and contemporary photographs of Oakman-designed
structures, including the majestic brick Powerhouse in
Jersey City and the Christopher Street PATH station in
New York City, and efforts to preserve them.
Two scholarly, illustrated
lectures will be provided to complement the exhibit.
On Sunday, January 26, 2003, at 3 pm,
transportation historian, Brian J Cudahy, author of
"Rails Under the Mighty Hudson: the Story of the
Hudson Tubes, the Pennsy Tunnels, and Manhattan
Transfer" (Brattleboro, VT: Stephen Greene Press,
1975; reissued Bronx, NY: Fordham University Press,
2002) will provide an illustrated lecture on the
building of the Hudson and Manhattan tunnels Mr
Cudahy, who also authored "Cash, Tokens, and
Transfers: A History of Urban Mass Transit in North
America" (Fordham, 1990) will discuss the
engineering advances that made the "tubes"
and rapid transit possible, as well as the ways the
tunnels have changed the lives of New Yorkers and New
Jerseyeans by physically linking them as never before
A book signing will follow audience discussion.
And on Sunday, March 9, 2003
at 3 pm, John Gomez, president of the preservation
non-profit Jersey City Landmarks Conservancy, will
provide a slide lecture on the history of Jersey
City's 1906 Hudson & Manhattan Railroad
Powerhouse, which once literally gave life to the
Hudson Tunnels, and current efforts not only to
preserve this rare architectural reminder of America's
Gilded and Industrial Ages, but to make it the
innovative centerpiece of the cultural and commercial
revival of Jersey City's waterfront.
Any contacts or leads to special
H&M collections would be gratefully appreciated
and acknowledged Please contact the Hoboken Historical
Museum to discuss specifics about, and arrange,
collection loans
Contact Holly Metz at: Tel:
2016562240 Hoboken Historical Museum PO Box 3296
Hoboken, NJ 07030 Email: hollymetz@earthlink.net
. Or contact: John Gomez Jersey City Landmarks
Conservancy PO Box 68, Jersey City, NJ 07303-0068 Tel:
2014201885 Email: jclandmarks@earthlink.net
Web: www.jclandmarks.org
(John Gomez, Jersey City Landmarks Conservancy)
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email from the web at http://mail2webcom/
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The Railroad Station
Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org
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