The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles

The Toynbee tiles (also called Toynbee plaques) are messages of unknown origin found embedded in asphalt of streets in about two dozen major cities in the United States and four South American cities.  Since the 1980s, several hundred tiles have been discovered. They are generally about the size of an American license plate (roughly 30 by 15 cm or 12 by 6 in), but sometimes considerably larger. They contain some variation of the following inscription:

TOYNBEE IDEA

IN MOViE `2001

 RESURRECT DEAD

ON PLANET JUPiTER

Some of the more elaborate tiles also feature cryptic political statements or exhort readers to create and install similar tiles of their own. The material used for making the tiles was initially unknown, but evidence has emerged that they may be primarily made of layers of linoleum and asphalt crack-filling compound.  Articles about the tiles began appearing in the mid-1990s, though references may have started to appear in the mid-1980s.

History

Toynbee tiles were first photographed in the late 1980s, and their first known reference in the media came in 1994 in The Baltimore Sun.  A 1983 letter to The Philadelphia Inquirer referenced a Philadelphia-based campaign with themes similar to those mentioned in the tiles (e.g., resurrecting the dead on Jupiter, Stanley Kubrick, and Arnold J. Toynbee) but did not refer to tiles.

In the United States, tiles have officially been sighted as far west as Kansas City, Missouri, as far north as Boston, Massachusetts, and as far south as Washington, D.C.  Since 2002, very few new tiles considered to be the work of the original artist have appeared outside of the immediate Philadelphia area, although one notable sighting appeared in suburban Connecticut in 2006 and one appeared in Edison, New Jersey in 2007.  Presumed copycat tiles have been spotted in Noblesville, Indiana, Buffalo, New York, and on the West Coast, including San Francisco, California; Portland, Oregon; and Roswell, New Mexico.  Additional tiles were spotted in downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma in 2013 and Detroit, Michigan in 1997. Many older tiles considered to be the work of the original tiler have been eroded by traffic, but as of 2011 older tiles remain in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; St. Louis, Missouri; Cincinnati and Cleveland, Ohio; and South America, among other locations.

On June 19, 2013, tiles resembling the Toynbee tiles appeared on a street in Topeka, Kansas. They were removed by the evening of the next day.  Less than a month later, on July 17, 2013, a tile resembling the Toynbee tiles appeared on a street in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Newer tiles have been embedded on several major highways, including Interstate 476 in Delaware County, and on Interstate 95. About six more were found on U.S. 1 northbound starting in Drexel Hill in Delaware County in 2007 and 2008. The plates are much larger than the originals and have red italic writing on them.

Interpretations

In a documentary film about the tiles, Justin Duerr assumes that "Toynbee" refers to the 20th century British historian Arnold J. Toynbee, and that "Kubrick's 2001" is a reference to the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, a film co-written and directed by filmmaker Stanley Kubrick, about a manned mission to Jupiter.  The toynbee.net website speculates that Toynbee refers to Ray Bradbury's short story "The Toynbee Convector".

The majority of tiles contain text similar to that above, although a second set is often found nearby. Several of these allude to a mass conspiracy between the press (including newspaper magnate John S. Knight of Knight-Ridder), the U.S. government, the USSR (including tiles seemingly made years after the Soviet Union's dissolution), and "hellion Jews".

A tile that used to be located in Santiago de Chile mentions a street address: 2624 S. 7th Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The current occupants of the house know nothing about the tiles and are annoyed by people who ask, though this is the former residence of a named recluse and alleged tile-maker, as shown in the 2011 documentary film Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles. Toynbee-tile enthusiasts believe that a native Philadelphian created the Toynbee tiles because of the large number that appear in the city, their apparent age, the variety of carving styles, the presence of the "tile creator's screed," and the Philadelphia address on the Santiago tile.

Possible subjects

Arnold J. Toynbee's "The Idea"

According to letters written by the tiler, allegedly uncovered by Toynbee tile researchers in Philadelphia in 2006, "Toynbee's idea" stems from a passage in Arnold Toynbee's book Experiences:

Human nature presents human minds with a puzzle which they have not yet solved and may never succeed in solving, for all that we can tell. The dichotomy of a human being into 'soul' and 'body' is not a datum of experience. No one has ever been, or ever met, a living human soul without a body... Someone who accepts—as I myself do, taking it on trust—the present-day scientific account of the Universe may find it impossible to believe that a living creature, once dead, can come to life again; but, if he did entertain this belief, he would be thinking more 'scientifically' if he thought in the Christian terms of a psychosomatic resurrection than if he thought in the shamanistic terms of a disembodied spirit.

Ray Bradbury's "The Toynbee Convector"

Another possible interpretation is that the Toynbee reference comes from the science fiction writer Ray Bradbury's short story "The Toynbee Convector," which alludes to Toynbee's idea that in order to survive, humankind must always rush to meet the future and believe in a better world, and must always aim far beyond what is practically possible, in order to achieve something barely within reach. Thus the message might be that humanity ought to strive to colonize Jupiter—as in Clarke's work—or something greater, to survive.

Arthur C. Clarke's "Jupiter V"

Arthur C. Clarke's short story "Jupiter V" involves a space ship named the Arnold Toynbee on a mission to Jupiter. It contains elements in common with 2001.

David Mamet's "4 A.M."

Playwright David Mamet has spoken of his belief that the tiles are an homage to one of his plays, and has described it as "the weirdest thing that ever happened". In his 1983 work "4 A.M." (published in the collection Goldberg Street: Short Plays and Monologues in 1985) a radio host based on Larry King impatiently listens to a caller who contends that the movie 2001, based on the writings of Arnold Toynbee, speaks of the plan to reconstitute life on Jupiter. The radio show host quickly points out the factual errors in the caller's assertion and the logical fallacies of his plan.

Researchers for the 2011 documentary Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles claim to have uncovered several pieces of evidence that predate Mamet's play, including a 1980 call by the tiler to Larry King's radio show. They cite a 1983 article in The Philadelphia Inquirer which mentions a local man "contacting talk shows and newspapers to spread the message" about bringing the dead to life on Jupiter, as depicted in the film 2001.

Creator

Three tiles placed on the Avenue of the Arts section of Broad Street in Philadelphia. The tiles appear to be of a clay-like substance, but are made of linoleum cemented onto normal-sized paving bricks.

In 1983, a man identifying himself as a social worker named James Morasco contacted talk shows and newspapers with his theory of colonizing Jupiter with the dead inhabitants of Earth, claiming to have come across the idea while reading a book by historian Arnold Toynbee.  In a conversation with The Philadelphia Inquirer, Morasco discussed how Toynbee's book contained a theory on bringing dead molecules back to life and that this was later depicted in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.  The caller had founded what the Inquirer called a "Jupiter colonization organization", known as the Minority Association.

In 1996, the Kansas City Star editor Doug Worgul discovered a "Toynbee Tile" at the corner of 13th and Grand in downtown Kansas City. Investigating the story seven years later, he found that the tile was still there, and he determined that the street had last been resurfaced in 1996. Comparing the tile to those in other cities, a local police detective felt that "clearly it was created by the same hand" and concluded that despite referring to a "movement", the creator was acting alone.

In 2003, Worgul called the only James Morasco in the Philadelphia telephone book and was told by the man's wife that her husband had died in March that year, aged 88. When asked about the tiles, Morasco's widow said that her husband "didn't know anything about it."  Worgul doubted that this was the tile maker.  Action News spoke to the widow of a man named James Joseph Morasco and identified him as a Philadelphia carpenter who had died in 2003, aged 87. His wife did not recognize the tiles and said her husband had had no interest in Jupiter.  If Morasco had died at either age in 2003, he would have been in his seventies when most of the tiles were laid.

In the 2011 documentary Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles, artist and Toynbee Tile enthusiast Justin Duerr said that he considered the tiles to be the work of a single person and attributed them to the reclusive Philadelphia resident Severino "Sevy" Verna.   Duerr believed Verna used the name "James Morasco" as an alias.  The streets surrounding Verna's residence were littered with small "proto-tiles" that Duerr believed were tests, and ham radio enthusiasts reported Verna might have broadcast a message via short wave radio about his theories.  Based on comments from Verna's neighbors about him driving a car without a passenger seat, Duerr suspected Verna placed the tiles through a hole in the floor of his car.

New tiles have been seen in Philadelphia since 2003. Between 2002 and 2007, many such tiles displayed a different font and styling than the older tiles and tended to leave out words that were found on the originals: "raise" is often substituted for "resurrect," and prepositions are frequently omitted. Beginning in 2007, tiles were discovered in Philadelphia that are quite similar to the original tiles, leading some to believe that everything has been the work of the same person throughout the life of the tile phenomenon. The font and message are the same as the old ones, and the subtext is a return to some of the older ideas as well. These tiles were glued with a thicker layer of asphalt glue or sealant than older ones.

Usage

Deployment

Toynbee-tile enthusiast Justin Duerr claims to have once found and examined a newly installed tile. This new tile was wrapped in tar paper and placed on a busy street early in the morning. From this find and other evidence, Duerr believes that the pressure exerted by automobiles driving over the tile for weeks on end pushes the tile into the road surface. Eventually, the tar paper wears away, exposing the message.

A Toynbee-tile enthusiast website reported a tile found in Pittsburgh that included deployment instructions, which the reader transcribed as "linoleum, asphalt glue in several layers, then placing tar paper over it so that car wheels won't mess it up, and apparently the heat of the sun on the tar paper will bake it into the street." This tile was located near the Pittsburgh Hilton and has since been paved over.

Destruction, conservation, and public acknowledgment

Tiles that are located in the middle of busy streets and highway on- and off-ramps tend to wear away quickly and also can become victims of resurfacing; smaller tiles and those located close to pedestrian crosswalks tend to be in better condition.

Hundreds of tiles have been destroyed during the course of regular road maintenance.  The city of Chicago has declared the tiles "vandalism" and removes any tiles that it finds, considering them to be "no different than graffiti."

A large tile complex, the tile maker's apparent rant against his enemies, was destroyed when Chestnut Street in Philadelphia was repaved.  One tile located at the corners of Talcahuano and Santa Fé streets in Buenos Aires, Argentina since at least 1996 is damaged and unreadable.

There is no public or private agency dedicated to conserving Toynbee tiles. Many tiles now exist only as photographs taken before their destruction. The tiles have enjoyed attention from American and European media outlets, including from The New York Times, The Chicago Sun-Times, Spiegel Online, and NPR. In 2011, Philadelphia-based filmmakers Justin Duerr, Jon Foy, Colin Smith, and Steve Weinik released Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles, an independent documentary film about the tiles.  The film was selected for the 2011 Sundance Film Festival in the U.S. Documentary category, and Foy won the category's Directing Award.

As of October 2015, the Streets Department of Philadelphia recognizes Toynbee Tiles as street art, and "will save one or two of the Toynbee Tiles only if there is a fast and affordable method for removing them."