Lunch Hour NYC

Lunch Hour Exhibition - A life-sized photo of a food truck greeted visitors as they entered the exhibition.

Colonial American mealtimes were based on English rural life, with a main meal known as “dinner in the middle of the day.” But during the 19th century, under the pressures of industrialization, this pattern began to change. Nowhere was the change more dramatic than in New York, the burgeoning center for trade, manufacturing, and finance. Lunch Hour NYC looked back at more than a century of New York lunches—when the city’s early power brokers invented what was yet to be called “power lunch,” local charities established a 3-cent school lunch, and visitors with guidebooks thronged Times Square to eat lunch at the Automat. Drawing on materials across the NYPL’s collections, the exhibition explored the ways in which New York City reinvented lunch in its own image.

Curators: Laura Shapiro and Rebecca Federman

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Lunch Hour Exhibition - Straight ahead, Pure+Applied featured a “New York street” where visitors learned about typical and historical street and lunch foods.
Lunch Hour Exhibition - A detail of the oyster cart showing casts of oyster shells, a brief text history, and a timeline of typical oyster prices.
Lunch Hour Exhibition - The “New York Street” section also featured contemporary lunch venues. (Pure+Applied commissioned the new photography.)
Lunch Hour - In the “Street Food” section, P+A repurposed a hot dog cart to show a video of Ed Bella, the inventor of the ubiquitous stainless-steel push cart.
Lunch Hour Exhibition - A clock was placed in every section introduction as a visual leitmotif.
Lunch Hour - The “Automat” section told the history of the lunch vending machine. A plate was used as a visual motif for section texts.
Lunch Hour - Detail: Most of the items on display in the exhibition were menus. P+A enhanced the visitor experience with three-dimensional and haptic experiences.
Lunch Hour - Most of the items on display in the exhibition were menus. P+A enhanced the visitor experience with three-dimensional and haptic experiences.
Lunch Hour - One of the key objects and analog interactives in the exhibition was a refurbished Horn & Hardart Automat that dispensed recipes.
Lunch Hour In the “Horn & Hardart” section, visitors could take away recipes found in a Horn & Hardart Automat by opening the display units or from the dispensing racks.
Lunch Hour - In the “Horn & Hardart” section, visitors could take away recipes found in a Horn & Hardart Automat by opening the display units or from the dispensing racks.
Lunch Hour -A display of Horn & Hardart dishware was supplemented by movie and television clips that used the Automat as a backdrop.
Lunch Hour - A display of Horn & Hardart dishware was supplemented by movie and television clips that used the Automat as a backdrop.
Lunch Hour - P+A integrated imagery in the display case (printing on paper instead of self-adhesing vinyl to avoid off-gassing).
Lunch Hour - P+A integrated imagery in the display case (printing on paper instead of self-adhesing vinyl to avoid off-gassing).
Lunch Hour - P+A integrated imagery in the display case (printing on paper instead of self-adhesing vinyl to avoid off-gassing).
Lunch Hour P+A integrated imagery in the display case (printing on paper instead of self-adhesing vinyl to avoid off-gassing).
Lunch Hour - Visitors were asked: What would you buy for lunch if you had only 10 cents?
Lunch Hour - Kitchen cabinets-turned-display-cases and P+A sourcing of vintage kitchen appliances helped set the scene for the cookbooks on display.
Lunch Hour Pure+Applied collected and bought used lunch boxes to tell the story of home-packed lunches.
Lunch Hour - To convey the history of lunch in school, P+A fabricated an “old-school” bench and told the history in the form of a timeline on school lunch trays.
Lunch Hour - A timeline of charitable meals for children was displayed on lunch trays.
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Lunch Hour Detail of the “Women’s Power Lunch” section showing men outside the door.
Lunch Hour Books and pamphlets on display in the “Women’s Power Lunch” section.
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Really? Can an exhibition about the history of lunchtime in the city have that much to say?
Yes: Going to this show is a bit like heading out to a street cart or a food truck and finding that there is much more to choose from than you thought possible….It is all playfully and elegantly designed.

The New York Times

Lunch Hour “Power Lunch” intro wall with repurposed street lamp.
Lunch Hour
Lunch Hour For the final section, Pure+Applied commissioned new photography from various photographers to show people having lunch throughout NYC.
Pure+Applied designed the Lunch Hour NYC exhibition brochure.
Pure+Applied designed the Lunch Hour NYC exhibition brochure.

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