The Art at 81 St-MNH Prepares You For a Deep Dive Into Nature

The NYC subway’s arts program decorated this station with art that celebrates the world-famous museum.

by Rich Watson 

For over a century and a half, the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) has educated audiences on the beauty and wonder of the natural world and the universe.

Located on Central Park West in Manhattan, its subway station at West 81 Street reflects its mission with a stunning array of mosaic and relief art.

About the Museum of Natural History 

Pre-Civil War, PT Barnum had established a precedent for the AMNH in Manhattan’s financial district. When a fire destroyed it in 1868, desire for a replacement grew. Naturalist Albert S. Bickmore stirred the idea.

Central Park’s Arsenal, on East 64 Street and Fifth Avenue, was the original location for the AMNH, in 1871. The building’s top two floors were used. Park commissioners chose the West 81 Street/Central Park West site as a permanent location. The new building opened by 1877.

Former president Theodore Roosevelt, who had a history as a naturalist and conservationist, is honored at the AMNH with a memorial hall and rotunda named after him, as well as an indoor statue.

The 81 Street station

The B and C trains stop at 81 Street. They travel 

• through the Bronx (B) and upper Manhattan from 168 Street (C), making local stops,
• joining at 145 Street with the express A and D and going down Harlem and the Upper West Side,
• splitting at Columbus Circle and going down Sixth (B) and Eighth Avenues (C)

before rejoining at West Fourth Street and splitting again:

• the B through Chinatown into Brooklyn towards Brighton Beach, and
• the C past the World Trade Center into Brooklyn towards East New York.

The uptown platform lies above, the downtown platform below. A trains, on the express track, zip past both ways.

Among the nearby attractions include 

• the New York Historical Society,
• the Dakota Building, plus
• the location of Jerry Seinfeld’s apartment for his eponymous sitcom.

Within the park, 

• the Great Lawn, 
• the Delacorte Theater, 
• Belvedere Castle,
• the Marionette Theater, and
• a quidditch pitch, for Harry Potter fans,

are all within walking distance.

The station opened in 1932, as part of the Independent Subway System (IND), and renovated in 1998-2000. It’s expected to be made ADA-accessible by 2026.

MTA Arts for Transit and subway art

The NYC subway arts program, MTA Arts and Design a.k.a. Arts for Transit, promotes the beautification of the subway and commuter train stations through visual and performing arts. 

Every day, you can find murals, sculptures, mosaics and other works of art throughout the subway, as well as musicians and performing artists—some commissioned, others not.

Graffiti has been a problem for the MTA for years, especially during the seventies, when “tagged” subway cars were a common sight (think of movies like The Warriors). Even today, you can see “tags” in tunnels and abandoned stations. Cars wrapped with advertising combats that sort of thing, but the presence of illegal artwork within the subway system persists. Graffiti, however, has become recognized as a legitimate art form unto itself.

In high school during the late eighties, I’m proud to say I contributed to a mural that hung at the 66 Street-Lincoln Center station. It was a worm’s-eye view of the Lincoln Center facade, which hung for years. 

More recently, an abstract painter acquaintance has had her artwork displayed in stations in Queens and the Bronx.

AMNH-related artwork at 81 Street

Artwork at the 81 Street station began in 1976. Grants from the Exxon Corporation lead to artwork at four stations around New York, including 81 Street. Posters of fictitious dinosaurs decorated the station, such as a “Thesaurus Rex” or an “Elongatomus.”

Then, during the 1998 renovation, MTA A&D, with the AMNH, created a series of mosaics and casts, for the station walls and floors. Collectively called “For Want of a Nail,” they depict extinct, existing and endangered animals. Reptiles, bugs, fish, mammals and other creatures are included.

Sandra Bloodworth, Kendal Henry and Mona Chen of MTA A&D designed the artwork; Stephen Miotto made the mosaics. In the mosaics, they include hidden red question marks, as if to ponder the future of these species.

Two stairwells depict a space-scape dotted with constellations and a rendering of the earth’s core. There are fossil casts meant to evoke an excavation. Inlays on the tile floor represent spiral galaxies.

Noted astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson has said of the artwork:

[I]f you happen to lose touch with your surroundings while riding the train (having entered that semidazed dream state that a subway commute sometimes induces), nature will be staring you in the face when the doors open on 81 Street.

@byrichwatson

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Have you been to AMNH and seen the artwork at the 81 Street subway station?