Coloring the Subway Map

Today’s NYC subway system is defined by color—like the green Lexington Avenue Line, the red Broadway Line, and the blue Eighth Avenue Line. But how and why were those colors chosen? And what color schemes came before and why did they change?

Join Peter Lloyd for a discussion about the coloring of subway lines since 1904. He will trace the historical color schemes as the map passed through the hands of principal mapmakers, from Andrew Hagstrom to John Tauranac. Touching on the ingenious color schemes that never made the official map, his talk will also follow sidelined mapmakers such as Arthur Weindorf and Thomas Stephen.