#Toynbee tiles map install
#Toynbee tiles map license

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. 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.Īccording 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: 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. government, the USSR (including tiles seemingly made years after the Soviet Union‘s dissolution), and “hellion Jews”.Ī tile that used to be located in Santiago de Chile mentions a street address: 2624 S. Several of these allude to a mass conspiracy between the press (including newspaper magnate John S. The majority of tiles contain text similar to that above, although a second set is often found nearby. The website speculates that Toynbee refers to Ray Bradbury‘s short story “The Toynbee Convector”. 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. In a documentary film about the tiles, Justin Duerr assumes that “Toynbee” refers to the 20th century British historian Arnold J. The plates are much larger than the originals and have red italic writing on them. 1 northbound starting in Drexel Hill in Delaware County in 20. Newer tiles have been embedded on several major highways, including Interstate 476 in Delaware County, and on Interstate 95. Less than a month later, on July 17, 2013, a tile resembling the Toynbee tiles appeared on a street in Salt Lake City, Utah. They were removed by the evening of the next day. On June 19, 2013, tiles resembling the Toynbee tiles appeared on a street in Topeka, Kansas. Louis, Missouri Cincinnati and Cleveland, Ohio and South America, among other locations. 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. Additional tiles were spotted in downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma in 2013 and Detroit, Michigan in 1997. 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. 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. 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. 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 tiles were first photographed in the late 1980s, and their first known reference in the media came in 1994 in The Baltimore Sun. Articles about the tiles began appearing in the mid-1990s, though references may have started to appear in the mid-1980s. 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.

#Toynbee tiles map install

Some of the more elaborate tiles also feature cryptic political statements or exhort readers to create and install similar tiles of their own. They contain some variation of the following inscription:

#Toynbee tiles map license

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. Since the 1980s, several hundred tiles have been discovered. 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.