George Playford

Lithographic stone engraver, c. 1882–1933. [obituary] PLINC co-founder Harold Horman’s father-in-law. Upon Photo-Lettering’s founding in the 1930s, Playford’s alphabets were made part of PLINC’s original assets. Originally identified by numbers only, they were renamed after regions in New York City’s pre-NANP 2L-5N phone dialing program. These included Bryant, Digby, Longacre, Butterfield, Watkins, Wickersham, Tompkins Square, Lackawanna, Schuyler, Academy, Chelsea, Cortlandt, Algonquin, University, Worth, and Barclay. [Life with Letters]