Dating my Kodak 2D 8x10

[shutterfinger]

Just another one in the upper 2/3 of the pack when the camera was very popular.

 

[Fotoguy20d]

Does the list go back to the F&S Manufacturing in NYC days? I have a Graphic A with a 37xx serial number. Obviously pre 1905 but I wonder how much older. That model doesnt even appear in the 1904 catalog.

Does the 1A Speed Kodak fall on the list? I happened to notice an 1800s serial number on mine today - doesnt seem to make sense.

Thanks,
Dan

 

[shutterfinger]

F&S did not start keeping a serial number record until after being purchased by Kodak and merged with Century as the F&S Division of Eastman Kodak in 1907. The first 5 pages are missing and the first existing page begins in 1915.
There is a member or two on Graflex.org help board that have a few original sales receipts that were found with the matching camera in attics. They have not posted to the helpboard in years so a response may be slow in coming if a query is posted on that site. A lists of serial number inquires on Graflex.org helpboard that I compiled from posts on that site shows that 48xx is 1897. The member stating that date is more knowledgeable on F&S than I.

 

[Roger Thoms]

I've got a 2D 8x10, serial# 312727, and was hope to find out what year it was manufactured. Thanks

Roger

 

[shutterfinger]

There is a small block of 312xxx serial numbers not listed in the book. Yours falls close to the end of that block. All 312xxx numbers listed are 6-1942.

 

[Roger Thoms]

Cool, thanks for the info. Always figured it was from the forties, but was never sure. Just polished up the old babe, getting ready for Christmas with the family. Going to take everybody's portraits.

Roger

 

[shutterfinger]

Any chance it has/had a government agency or armed forces tag on it?

 

[Roger Thoms]

University of California, can out of the UC Berkeley Zoological Laboratory. The interesting thing is that the camera came with two sliding tripod blocks and the are some screws and screw holes that suggest stiffeners between the front and rear standards.

Roger

 

[apkujeong]

I've got an 8x10 2D with armed forces markings, 305822. I think that puts it at 1941/42?

 

[shutterfinger]

305822 is another not listed number. 11-1941 to early 1942. The number may have been listed in other documentation by Kodak. They were listed in 1940 but not again until 1946.

 

[apkujeong]

Shutterfinger, thanks for checking out those details.

 

[willgiven]

I just purchased my first 8x10 Eastman View 2-D. It has the serial number 128820 and I'm curious to find out when it was made. Many thanks!

 

[shutterfinger]

Last half 1923

 

[Drew Bedo]

Don't know if this is helpful, but this was lurking in "My Documents". I think its from McKeowin's book:


FOLMER&SCHWING

Folmer & Schwing (NYC), 1887.

Folmer & Schwing Mfg. Co. (NYC), 1890.

Folmer & Schwing Mfg. Co. of New York,

1903.

Folmer & Schwing Co., Rochester (EKC),

1905.

Folmer & Schwing Div. of EKC, 1907.

Folmer & Schwing Dept. of EKC, 1917.

Folmer-Graflex Corp., 1926.

Graflex, Inc., 1945.

 

[spartacus]

Today I got an Eastman View 2D 8x10. The name plate says "Manufactured by Folmer Graflex Corporation", the serial number is 350787. Based on other Graflex serial numbers I found online I suppose the camera was built in 1945. Is anybody able to confirm this? Thank you.

 

[shutterfinger]

That serial number is not listed. Numbers either side (350xxx-351xxx) are mid year 1945.

 

[spartacus]

Thank you for the info, shutterfinger.

 

[ndavidson2]

Hi shutterfinger,

Any info for serial # 339206 (or could be 339208)? The order # on the top plate is 45-7426-AF.

Thanks,

 

[shutterfinger]

Another non listed number. 339xxx - 1944.

 

[Richard Pippin]

After not receiving a reply on my post dated November 22, 2009 I did some research to try and identify my Kodak 2D. In my travels around Staunton I met a gentleman in a small town 10 miles south of here who has a wonderful old garage full of old cars from the '40s. Turns out he was a curator, now retired, from the Smithsonian and has a real passion for early photography. He recently published a book on the early years of Edward Steichen when he set up an aerial photography division for the air corp during WW1. It was during WW2 that Steichen, wanting to serve but being a bit up in age could not enlist, convinced the Navy to take him on as a photographer on some of the battle ships. He put together a small group of photographers and got Kodak, or their affiliates, to produce some 2D's to be used by him and his crew to document life on the battle ships. This, according to my friend, was how the Kodak 2D 161-USN-266407 came into existence. I've combed through all the responses posted since 2009 and can find nothing referring to the USN issue serial numbers. I've kept his name and location private in this post, but if anyone has evidence to the contrary on this, please let me know. I can get in touch with my friend and pass on the info as well as your contact for further discussion, in order to clear this up. To me it makes no difference. My 2D is a daily user, sitting on a tripod in my studio, and occasionally gets taken out in the field as well.

 

[Jon Shiu]

If you compare the last part of that number with the Graflex serial numbers for their other cameras it would estimate about 1940.

 

[shutterfinger]

Military serial numbers are a different can of worms assigned by the government and have no relationship to the manufacturers serial numbers or camera models. Many government numbers are for the use a camera was set up for. A 2D set up for landscape photography was given one number while a 2D set up for portraits was a totally different number. Also there may be several makes of cameras of the same format set up for the same type of photography with the same military designation. The other commonly listed number is the contract number under which the camera was purchased by the military. There is little military numbering information available online.
For the record Graflex serial number 266407 is for a 3x4 RB Series D made in 1940. The Graflex/Folmer & Schwing Dept. of Eastman Kodak serial number is stamped/embossed on the lower left corner of the rear standard. It is reportedly hard to see as the back frame is above it.

 

[Richard Pippin]

The number came directly off the plate attached to the camera. It is an 8X10, not a 3X4, and I can accept the build date to be in 1940. If my memory serves me correctly, WW2 was still going on. Point is...would this be one of the camera's used by Steichen's crew during the war?

 

[shutterfinger]

Graflex stamped their numbers into the wood or metal frame of the camera or ink stamped them onto the wood, they never put them on a plate attached to the camera.
Correction: Pacemaker Crown and Speed Graphic cameras have the serial number on a plate riveted to the bed of the camera.

 

[Richard Pippin]

Good info on Graflex, I suppose, however the letters and numbers are on a plate mounted on the camera. Don't know any other way to say or describe what I see right in front of me. I suppose I'll need to find a digiwanking little camera and take a picture of it and post it online, although I'm sure there are some who will still try to make an argument for it being something else. Next time I'm in Middlebrook I'll get my friend to put something in writing as to what I say I see is what I see. No misspelled, no fake plates or numbers, no hidden agendas. Just want to identify what it is, not what is isn't. Jeez.