An American stationed in Greenwich? > On 27 March 2016 at 14:22 Darren Addy <[email protected]> wrote: > > > I was hoping you would reply Bob. Thank you for the info. > The word is written out in only one of his versions. It does stand for > a telephone prefix, because in another version it is shortened to Gr > 5846. > > If there was no GR/Greenbelt telephone exchange in London then it may > not be quite as exotic (to me) as I was thinking. > > On Sun, Mar 27, 2016 at 3:21 AM, Bob W-PDML <[email protected]> wrote: > > I have to say, it doesn't feel like London, England to me. We don't > > generally write greenbelt as one word, and it's not really a place that we > > call by name - we refer to 'the green belt'. However, it does appear to be > > turning into an adjective, as in 'the council has sold 10,000 acres of > > greenbelt land to developers', but I'd be surprised if that applied in 1942 > > when the concept of the green belt was still quite new. > > > > Also, I don't know any reason why it would have the hyphenated number, which > > feels to me like a telephone number. > > > > It's certainly possible in 1942+ that the owner was an American applying US > > conventions to such things, but it seems highly unlikely that 'Greenbelt' > > refers to anything over here. > > > > 'Greenbelt' would not have been a telephone exchange in London. I see from > > Google that there are some towns in the USA called Greenbelt, so perhaps it > > refers to one of these, or to a district with a Greenbelt exchange. > > > > A designation like 2R or 2 R can sometimes refer to an army regiment, eg the > > 2nd London Regiment, but that was apparently disbanded before WWII. > > > > Perhaps the photographer was one R London... > > > >> On 27 Mar 2016, at 05:20, Darren Addy <[email protected]> wrote: > >> > >> Was happy to see the 1939 (First Edition) of the Photo Lab Index show > >> up in my mailbox this morning. It took me a while to notice the 6 > >> pages of typewritten "INSTRUCTIONS FOR PRINTING AND PROCESSING ANSCO > >> COLOR PAPER" folded in half inside the back cover. What I found > >> interesting was what the previous owner had written (multiple times) > >> on the back of the folded instructions: > >> > >> PHOTOGRAPHER > >> Have your Portrait made. > >> Greenbelt-5846 > >> 2-R-London > >> > >> According to Google Books, "Ansco Color Paper" was called "a worthy > >> newcomer" in a 1942 Journal of Photographic Society of America. > >> Interestingly, the instructions refer to how it "may be printed from > >> the usual black-and-white separation negatives or the more recently > >> available complementary color negatives." Perhaps not coincidentally, > >> 1942 was also the year that Kodak introduced Kodacolor, "the first > >> color film that yields negatives for making chromogenic color prints > >> on paper. Roll films for snapshot cameras only, 35 mm not available > >> until 1958". > >> > >> Therefore it appears that a (the?) previous owner of my book was a > >> Londoner and he penciled his (not so creative) advertisement (which > >> appears to me to be sort of an aspiration) not very long after the > >> London Blitz ended (May 1941). > >> > >> I'm not sure what the 2-R designation before "London" means. But it > >> appears that Green Belt refers to an area known as "The Metropolitan > >> Green Belt" which, around London, was first proposed by the Greater > >> London Regional Planning Committee in 1935. > >> > >> It makes me wonder who this PHOTOGRAPHER was and if he (the penmanship > >> appears to be masculine) ever got to place his ad and take Londoner's > >> portraits.
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