The first thing I asked Sharon, when I moved to New York City from Israel was; do you take the train at any hour, day or night? Aren’t you scared?
The veteran New Yorker and best friend replied:

Yes, at any hour.
Just know where you’re going.

18 months later, I hardly use a subway map anymore. I know where I’m going.
The only problem now is, I stopped looking.

Pushed and pulled with about 5 million commuters every morning, I’m just trying to get from A to B. Usually with the L and N.
The metro autopilot hardly raises her gaze from today’s headline to appreciate the path.

Well, what is there exactly to appreciate?

A lot.

Beyond the dirty tracks, occasional rats and the smelly person sitting too close, the NYC tracks’ maze are full of artsy treasures. Sprinkled along paths, platforms and staircases, you’ll find subway art created to make your wait a bit more bearable and maybe even make you smile.

All YOU have to do is just look.

First stop. 23rd Street.
Memories of Twenty-Third Street, Keith Godard (2002)

As in many of the MTA art, often, there’s a thematic correlation between the artwork and its location. Like the 81st – Natural museum of Natural History, or the Carnegie Hall 57th Street – such is the 23rd Street, local R and W station.

According to “Arts for Transit,” between 1880 and late 1920, 23rd Street was a major vaudeville, entertainment, and cultural district. The station, opened in 1918, was in the heart of the fashion and department store haven of the time, aka, the “Ladies Mile”.

The new high-rise in the district, the Flatiron building, built in 1904, was a lot taller than its original neighbors and stirred up a great deal of wind. As the tale goes, the wind caused many skirts and dresses to reveal more stocking than normally seen at the time, and surely, set some hats sailing as well.
The British graphic designer and artist Keith Godard incorporated the spirit of the times, and an allusion of the wind in his “Memories of Twenty-Third Street.”
The joyful mosaic depicts what the hats of some of the famous poets, opera singers, actresses and many more, looked like as they were flying up and down 23rd Street. Sprawled along the platform, each hat, can be seen as a metonymy for each of the dozens of figures who once frequented this intersection.

The bonus track.

Godard offers another playful use for his art.
The next time you are waiting for the train, as you get into the burlesque mood, Between passing trains, try to picture the person on the opposite platform, reading the paper or talking to a friend, with the hat floating above their head!

These are only some of the alleged hats of the following personalities: William Randolph Hearst, Lillian Russell, Mark Twain , Henry James, Eleanor Roosevelt, Harry Houdini, Mary Pickford, Ethel Barrymore, Thomas Alva Edison, Marie Curie, O.Henry, Isadora Duncan and many more.
Memories of Twenty-Third Street, Keith Godard (2002)

— Dana Rapoport