There are layers of prints in scores of categories, boxes of books, piles of old sheet music, brochures on obscure topics, original posters, elegant first editions and all sorts of maps. The walls are hung with 19th century engravings, hand-drawn maps of Europe, a bright red and black Chinese calendar. It's a browsers paradise. But the store, set toward the back of Crespi Center off Highway 1, attracts almost no foot traffic. And the business can satisfy a diverse crowd of customers.
Many people have a particular passion.
Some collect pictures of people holding hands. Texans want maps of Texas as a republic. People from Virginia and West Virginia want pre-Civil War maps, when the two states were one. A rabbi from South Carolina collects anti-Semitic material from the turn of the century. Howard University and other mostly black universities in the South collect prints and material on the history of slavery.