Most beauty pageants promote the fantasy of the ideal woman. But for 35 years, one contest in New York City celebrated the everyday working girl.

Each month starting in 1941, a young woman was elected “Miss Subways,” and her face gazed down on transit riders as they rode through the city. Her photo was accompanied by a short bio describing her hopes, dreams and aspirations. The public got to choose the winners – so Miss Subway represented the perfect New York miss. She was also a barometer of changing times.

Miss Subways was one of the first integrated beauty pageants in America. An African-American Miss Subways was selected in 1948 – more than thirty years before there was a black Miss America. By the 1950s there were Miss Subways who were black, Asian, Jewish, and Hispanic – the faces of New York’s female commuters.

Peggy Bryne - Miss Subway March-April 1952 Mary Alice Gray Dawna, Dorice and Dorothy Clawson Elizabeth Stern - Miss Subway September-October 1960 Juliette Rose Lee - Miss Subway May-June 1954 Miss Subways reunion Marcia Kilpatrick Miss Subways Enid Berkowitz - Miss Subway July 1945 Miss Subway Miss Subway

See more photos at NPR’s Picture Show blog.

Meet Miss Subways, a book by photographer Fiona Gardner and writer Amy Zimmer, is available from Seapoint Books. For more Meet Miss Subways news, join their Facebook fan page.