Fifth Avenue Omnibuses: Proposed Design for the New Fifth Ave Omnibus & The Old Broadway Stages in 1831, from "Harper's Weekly"

Fifth Avenue Omnibuses: Proposed Design for the New Fifth Ave Omnibus & The Old Broadway Stages in 1831, from "Harper's Weekly"

Harper's Weekly

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This page from Harper's Weekly (December 5, 1885) shows an illustration of the proposed design for the new Fifth Avenue omnibus, together with an illustration of a New York street scene from 1831 with old stage coaches on Broadway. To the right the facade and bell tower of St. Paul's Chapel are visible. The print is an historic record of the rapid innovation and development in the manufacture of commercial vehicles in the United States.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Fifth Avenue Omnibuses: Proposed Design for the New Fifth Ave Omnibus & The Old Broadway Stages in 1831, from "Harper's Weekly"Fifth Avenue Omnibuses: Proposed Design for the New Fifth Ave Omnibus & The Old Broadway Stages in 1831, from "Harper's Weekly"Fifth Avenue Omnibuses: Proposed Design for the New Fifth Ave Omnibus & The Old Broadway Stages in 1831, from "Harper's Weekly"Fifth Avenue Omnibuses: Proposed Design for the New Fifth Ave Omnibus & The Old Broadway Stages in 1831, from "Harper's Weekly"Fifth Avenue Omnibuses: Proposed Design for the New Fifth Ave Omnibus & The Old Broadway Stages in 1831, from "Harper's Weekly"

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.