The last post showed photoengraved zinc printing plates mounted on wood. They were from 1967 and were printed as relief (also known as letterpress) prints, i.e., the words and lines of the drawing are higher than the plate itself.

Some of the plates were also unmounted zinc plates, and later, magnesium printing plates:

For example, the following page of drawings ran in the Daily News on October 7, 1969:

The illustrations were drawn on-the-scene by Joseph Papin. The first two plates below were published in the illustrations from “Scenes on the Long Island Rail Road.” The third plate was done at the same time but an alternate one was included in the paper.


The plate needed to be raised to be printed by placing a wood or metal piece under the plate to raise it to the same height as the text, as shown in the photo below of the man inserting a block that is “type high” or 0.918 inches (photo from the Dave Bagnall Collection, 1959):

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