Papers of Henry Hemmendinger

Henry Hemmendinger was born April 1, 1915 in Bernardsville, New Jersey to Max and Jeannette Hemmendinger. He began college at Cornell University at the age of 15. As a Cornell student, Henry was interested in the German language. He enrolled in the Foreign Study Program abroad in Germany for the 1932-1933 semester. Researchers will find within this collection countless letters of correspondence sent to members of Henry’s family. Researchers will also find a telegram, a list of extracurricular activities, Henry’s winter report card, a German Christmas program, and other similar materials within the collection. Researchers will also find a Munich student newspaper from 1933 on the subject of the rise of the Nazi Party and an upcoming book-burning events.

Henry’s letters refer to an interest in the study of economics, a curriculum Harvard offered. And following the Foreign Study trip, Henry enrolled at Harvard as a junior. He went on to major in Astronomy and perform graduate work at Harvard and Princeton, where he got his PhD. He was also a member of the Harvard-MIT solar-eclipse expedition to Siberia. He devoted the remainder of his life to the study of color science. Henry Hemmendinger died in his Princeton, NJ home on August 16, 2003.