Printing the History of New York

This article originally appeared in our March 2003 issue. We are republishing it today to mark the 18th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Situated smack in the center of New York's bustling Wall Street area, Trinity Church stands out—a piece of the 18th century peeking out at the 21st. It has seen a lot of changes over the years.

"It's almost like the history of Trinity is the history of New York," remarks Lynn Brewster, manager of Design and Production Services for Trinity Church Wall Street, which serves the Anglican Episcopalian religion.

In fact, Trinity has been around almost since the city's very beginning—and before the country's birth. The land on which it stands was a gift to the parish from England's Queen Anne in 1705. Its oldest structure, St. Paul's chapel, was built in 1766 and was once the tallest building in the city. George Washington had his own pew there. Alexander Hamilton rests in Trinity's churchyard.

On September 11, 2001, Trinity was right in the center of the city's history once again. It was just blocks away from the World Trade Center.

In the confusion after the planes hit, Brewster took her camera to the roof of her building. She had just finished taking pictures of the burning buildings when the first tower crumbled to the ground.

"We pretty much were trying to find a place to breathe for the first 10 minutes," she recalls. It wasn't until she was four blocks away that she realized the towers had fallen. Amazingly, St. Paul's chapel was virtually untouched by the catastrophe.

Trinity played a strong part in the tragedy's aftermath as well, allowing the chapel to be used as a gathering and resting place for recovery workers, or what Brewster calls an "around-the-clock relief ministry."

Her in-plant went into action too, printing posters and cards about the tragedy, encouraging people to maintain their faith. Later, the shop printed a booklet recognizing volunteers. And for the one-year anniversary of the attack, it produced a brochure detailing that day's events at Trinity.

Even now the in-plant continues to support the church's remembrance of that fateful day by printing all the materials for an ongoing Trinity exhibit that has drawn more than 300,000 visitors so far. This includes banners, brochures and material detailing the church's long history.

Back To 'Normal'

In the year and a half since the terrorist attacks, life at the in-plant has settled down. Brewster and her seven employees have continued printing items like post cards, brochures, magazines, newsletters, videotape labels and CD covers, some of which are sold in the church's souvenir shop. Internal mail distribution is another part of the operation.

Brewster readily admits that her operation's front end, powered by Macintosh G4s, is more advanced than its back end. She says high-end design was one of the things she brought to Trinity, drawing from her experience as an art director. One of the most visible products the in-plant designs is the cover of the colorful Trinity News magazine.

Still, the shop added a two-color Heidelberg Quickmaster 46 a few months before the towers fell to beef up its production capabilities. It also installed a Heidelberg Quicksetter at the same time.

"We wanted to eliminate the shooting," Brewster explains. "The makeready time is really reduced."

The shop proudly held an open house a few days before September 11, 2001. Of course, after that day, everything was a mess. When the towers fell, the resultant dust got into every corner of the shop. Heidelberg spent three straight days cleaning up the press and replacing parts.

Recently, the in-plant added a Canon imageRunner color copier, for on-demand color jobs, as well as a black-and-white Canon 105. The shop uses a Hewlett-Packard 755 DesignJet wide-format printer to print posters, which were previously sent to an outside printer.

"We have saved so much money with this, it's been terrific," Brewster proclaims.

These posters are another very visible item produced by the in-plant. Some of the canvas banners hang on the black wrought iron fence in front of Trinity Church, right at Wall Street and Broadway, where they entice passersby to attend church events, such as worship services, book signings, choir performances and Christmas events.

Preserving The Past

With more than 300 years behind it, Trinity Church is adamant about preserving its history. Archives from the church's very beginnings are kept in a vault. Almost everything the in-plant prints also goes into this vault.

When the church celebrated its 300th anniversary in 1996, the in-plant printed all the materials marking the occasion. Samples of these were also put in the vault.

"They put some of our printing materials in time capsules," Brewster adds.

This archiving of the in-plant's work gives Brewster and her employees a strong sense of purpose. They know they are preserving Trinity Church history with their printing. Items they print will be looked at again in 100 years by future parishioners. This knowledge motivates everyone to provide the best quality they possibly can.

"It makes us extremely proud of what we do," Brewster says, "knowing that someday, somewhere, someone's going to open that up and see something that we did."

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