Hub belongs to a group of columns that Indiana began in Coenties Slip and later modified in Vinalhaven with the addition of gold paint and wheels. The sculpture’s title appears at the bottom of the column, between its two wheels, and the text encircling the top of the work reads “City of the Manhattoes Coenties Slip.” In this work Indiana references Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick: in chapter one the narrator states “There now is your insular city of the Manhattoes . . . Go from Corlears Hook to Coenties Slip.” The novel's text is also directly referenced in the painting Coenties Slip (1962), as well as the column Call Me Ishamel (1964/1998), which is titled after its opening line.
