Since 1925 The New Yorker magazine has been putting out issues with the most wonderfully designed covers (and a few controversial ones). Often times the covers don’t necessarily reflect any specific article found within magazine, but sometimes they do reflect current events. Other times they show typical New York area scenes. In a city as reliant on mass transit as New York, it was inevitable that buses, trains, and subways would frequently wind up on the cover of the magazine. Even Grand Central Terminal and the original Pennsylvania Station have also been featured several times.

Because several of the illustrators contributing to the magazine lived in Connecticut, the New Haven Line and commuters from the state were depicted on The New Yorker’s cover several times. Westport’s Historical Society had an exhibit featuring some of the Connecticut artwork from the magazine. From what I’ve seen on the internet, the exhibit (which ended last month) looked quite interesting, including some preliminary sketches of the covers by some of the artists.

I figured that I’d create my own little exhibit of covers here, of course, railroad related. Below you’ll find a collection of some of my favorite covers from The New Yorker, all featuring transit in some way. Enjoy!

 
1926 cover by Carl Rose, and 1927 Grand Central Terminal cover by Theodore G. Haupt. Note the stylized train on display in the main concourse – this is a replica of the Dewitt Clinton engine that operated on the Mohawk & Hudson Railroad in 1831. It was built for the 1893 Columbian Exposition, was then on display in Grand Central in the ’20s, and then taken to Chicago for the Pageant of Progress Exposition. That train exists to this day – it is on display at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.

1929 cover by Theodore G. Haupt featuring the New York Central Railroad building on Park Avenue.

  
Covers by: Adolph K. Kronengold (1929), Garrett Price (1933), and a view of the original Pennsylvania Station by Ilonka Karasz (1934).

 
Covers by Christina Malman (1941), Peter Arno (1942).

  
Covers by Constantin Alajalov (1944), and Edna Eicke (1948 and 1949).

A New Haven Line scene by Arthur Getz from 1962, titled “Weekenders Goodbye.”

 
Cover art by Helen E Hokinson (1949), and Charles E Martin (1954).

 
Three covers by Arthur Getz: 1960, 1960, and 1961.

Charles Saxon captures a commuter on the New Haven Line in 1965.

  
Covers by Arthur Getz (1963), Charles E Martin (1964), Arthur Getz (1967).

 
Covers by Arthur Getz (1971), Eugene Mihaesco (1978).

Reimagining the New York Subway map by Roz Chast in 2008.

 
Covers by Kathy Osborn (1988), Harry Bliss (1998).

A missed connection on a 2004 cover, by Adrian Tomine.

 
Covers by Carter Goodrich (2005), Mark Ulriksen (2008).

A beautiful subway sunset from 2011 by Eric Drooker.

While the railroad art is certainly gorgeous, I must make a full confession… the non-rail related “Carlos Danger” edition of The New Yorker by John Cuneo is probably my favorite of all time.