I couldn’t have staged this any better if I tried. While visiting the New York Public Library yesterday I found myself studying the murals outside the Rose Main Reading Room. This one held my attention. It has quite the Norman Rockwell-esque quality to it, though it was actually painted by James Wall Finn in 1911.
Titled “The Linotype-Merganthaler and Whitelaw Reid,” it is part of Finn’s mural series, “The Story of the Written Word.” It represents a pivotal moment in history when the invention of the Linotype machine and the rise of mass circulation of newspapers transformed how information was printed, shared and made accessible to the public. Ottmar Mergenthaler, inventor of the Linotype, and newspaper publisher Whitelaw Reid helped shape an era that democratized knowledge in ways the world had never seen before.
Then came the moment I hadn’t actually planned for.
I took some steps back to view the painting on a larger scale. Sitting below it were two strangers on opposite ends of the bench, quietly scrolling through a world that now exists in the palm of their hands.
Same pursuit of information, different technology.
Different relationship with one another.
To me, it is an extraordinary visual reminder of how society evolves. One painting. One photograph. Separated by over a century, telling the same story in completely different ways.
It’s fascinating to me how a single moment captured, can bridge over a hundred years of social evolution.