Subway Post-It Notes Photos: NYC Election Messages Will Be Preserved, Gov. Cuomo Says

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced Friday the thousands of Post-it notes calling for love and unity recently popping up along the city’s subway stations would be preserved by the state government.

Those messages, part of a “Subway Therapy” project in the wake of one of the most divisive elections in modern American history, were created spontaneously by countless New Yorkers beginning the day after the election — including the governor himself.

"New York State holds the torch high!" he wrote in cursive on a yellow Post-it in November. "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free… I lift my lamp beside the golden door."

Cuomo’s message of strength in the wake of Republican Donald Trump's defeat of Democrat Hillary Clinton was just one of countless, colorful notes posted along the corridors of the Union Square subway station in Manhattan. Now, each of those messages will be saved in a joint project involving the New York Historical Society and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

"Over the last six weeks, New Yorkers have proved that we will not let fear and division define us,” Cuomo said Friday in a statement posted to the New York state website. "Today, we preserve a powerful symbol that shows how New Yorkers of all ages, races and religions came together to say we are one family, one community and we will not be torn apart."

Matthew Levee Chavez, a New York-based artist, decided to create the "Subway Therapy" project following Trump’s White House victory, supplying Post-it notes and pens to subway stations the day after the election. The idea was to spread inclusion and stress relief in the wake of a contentious and divisive moment in American politics — and New Yorkers ran with it.

By December, Union Square’s subway station, one of the busiest commuting centers in Manhattan, was virtually covered in Post-it notes, each with a unique, often-uplifting message from its writer.

"I started the project so people could have a channel to express their thoughts, feel less alone, and also become exposed to opinions different than their own," Chavez said in Friday's statement. "I’m thrilled that we have found a way to work together to move the project and preserve it for others to experience in the future."

Clinton, former Secretary of State and a former New York senator, won the state in a landslide victory against Trump, also a New Yorker, with more than 4.5 million votes compared to Trump's 2.7 million.

Check out some of New Yorkers' sticky-note messages to travelers below: