Seventy-four drawings, of which sixty-eight are on various sizes of Lefax loose-leaf mounted down, and six drawn directly, on the leaves of a commercial sketchbook.
This sketchbook contains seventy-four drawings on forty-five leaves, most depicting the New York streetscape, in particular the elevated trains. Davis regarded drawing as the cornerstone of his art, a primary means of recording impressions and testing ideas. He developed many of the images in the sketchbook into finished works in subsequent years, including the paintings "Jefferson Market" (1930) and "New York Elevated" (ca. 1931), and the lithographs "Two Trees and El" (1931) and "Sixth Avenue El" (1931). A drawing of an isolated shower curtain on one leaf underscores Davis's status as an important precursor to Pop art.