It was another day of auditing today, so another day of being able to enjoy walking around and take some photos in between visiting shops for work... not too bad a way to spend Friday really.
One of the shops I had to go to was REI, a big outdoorsy shop down in SoHo. When I was downstairs in the shop I noticed lots of big slabs of stone with what looked like certificates printed on them...
I later found out (after reading the little plaque) that they were lithography plates from the old printing presses (lith is apparently latin for rock, so lithography is printing with rocks - you can use that to sound clever if you want, I know I will!) The building used to be where Puck Magazine was produced and when the building was being renovated by REI they found all the old stone plates in the cellar!
It's amazing to think that back then (and not too long ago really!) stones were used for printing. Lithography's still used for printing now, but they use metal plates instead of stone ones. I bet they don't look as good as a big thick slab of rock with a certificate printed on them though!
It's great that REI kept the old slabs and displayed them, they have nothing to do with their brand or the products they sell, but it's a piece of New York History that they're preserving, and print history. It was a nice little surprise for me too.
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