Henry Collins (official)

Henry Hill Collins Jr. (1905–1961), also known as Henry H. Collins, Jr., and Henry Collins, was an American citizen employed in the New Deal National Recovery Administration in the 1930s and later the Agricultural Adjustment Administration. He was a member of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) and the Washington D.C. based Ware group, along with Alger Hiss, Lee Pressman, Harry Dexter White and others. He was also a "pioneer in the compiling of ornithological field guides."[1][2][3][4][5]

Background
Collins was a lifelong friend of Alger Hiss (here, testifying in 1950)

Collins was born in 1905 in Philadelphia, a "scion of a Philadelphia manufacturing family" in paper products. "My ancestors came from England to this country in 1640." He received a BA from Princeton University and a business degree from Harvard University.[1][2][4][5]

Collins was also a childhood friend of Alger Hiss in Baltimore. He graduated from Princeton University and Harvard Business School.[3][6]

Chambers also describes Collins as "my personal friend."[1]

Government career

Initially, Collins worked in the family paper business. He left during the Great Depression for work in the federal government during the New Deal.[5]

In 1933, Collins worked in the National Recovery Administration. He also worked at the Agricultural Adjustment Administration and the US Department of Labor.[2][3][7] He also worked for the Soil Conservation Service, the US Department of Labor, and a House committee on migration.[3] In 1941, he joined the U.S. Small Business Committee, then a Military Affair subcommittee.[3]

During World War II, Collins served as a captain in the Army, fought at the Battle of the Bulge, and won three ribbons and "five European campaign stars." Immediately after the war, he worked for six months as a district official for displaced persons in Germany as part of the States Department's division of occupied territories. Collins remained in government service until 1947.[4][3][5]

In 1948, he was serving as executive director of the American Russian Institute in New York and living at 58 Park Avenue, New York (as testified before HUAC in 1948).[2][3][7][8][9][10]

Alleged espionage activities

In August 1948, as the Hiss Case began, he appeared under subpoena before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and would answer no questions of substance.[4][3]

In 1950, Ware lived at the San Cristobal Valley Ranch near Los Alamos, New Mexico, and its atomic proving grounds. During testimony in 1953, Collins declared, "The ranch was a perfectly legitimate business operation."[3]

In 1952, Nathaniel Weyl confirmed under oath that Collins had been a member of the Ware Group founded by Harold Ware and inherited by Whittaker Chambers.[3]

Subpoenaed again in 1953, he declared, "I will not be a finger man for this committee."[3]

Personal and death

Collins married Susan B. Anthony II, great-niece of Susan B. Anthony.[2] He married Mary Evans Collins with whom he had two sons and one daughter.[5]

Collins once spotted a prothonotary warbler for Alger Hiss.[5]

Collins died age 57 on May 25, 1961, at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx after a car crash two days earlier.[2][5]

Works

In addition to books on American and Soviet government, Collins may have authored some dozen books on birds.[11]

  • America's Own Refugees; Our 4,000,000 Homeless Migrants (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1941)[12]
  • The Constitutions of the 16 Constituent or Union Republics of the USSR: A Comparative Analysis (1950)[13]
  • Bent's Life Histories of North American Birds (edited) (1960)
  • Bird Watchers' Guide (1961)

See also

References
  1. Chambers, Whittaker (1952). Witness. New York: Random House. pp. 31 (friend), 334, 340–341, 345, 347, 379, 419, 433, 510, 543, 553, 583, 619–622, 624, 684–686. LCCN 52005149.
  2. "Henry Hill Collins". Spartacus Educational. Retrieved 11 June 2017.
  3. Marder, Murrey (11 April 1953). "Jenner Unit Hears From '48 Witness: Henry H. Collins, Jr. Denies He Is a Red". Washington Post. p. 1.
  4. "Mr. Collin's Testimony". Washington Post. 18 August 1948. p. 10.
  5. "Henry H. Collins Jr. Dies at 57; Author and Conservationalist". New York Times. 27 May 1961. p. 23.
  6. "Alexander Vassiliev's Notes on Anatoly Gorsky's December 1948 Memo on Compromised American Sources and Networks". Michigan State University. 14 Mar 2005. Archived from the original on 24 June 2013. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
  7. Haynes, Jr., John Earl; Klehr, Harvey E.; Vassiliev, Alexander (2009). Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America. Yale University Press. pp. 14, 29, 244, 268 (Bela Gold and Henry Collins), 556. Retrieved 11 June 2017.
  8. Collins, Jr., Henry H. "Circular letter from American Russian Institute to W. E. B. Du Bois". Digital Commonwealth: Massachusetts Collections Online. Retrieved 11 June 2017.
  9. Collins, Jr., Henry H. "Circular letter from American Russian Institute to W. E. B. Du Bois, June 16, 1948". Digital Commonwealth: Massachusetts Collections Online. Retrieved 11 June 2017.
  10. "United States. Congress. House. Committee on Un-American Activities". US GPO. 1948. p. 802. Retrieved 11 June 2017.
  11. "Collins, Henry Hill, 1905-1961". Library of Congress. Retrieved 11 June 2017.
  12. Collins, Jr., Henry Hill (1941). America's Own Refugees; Our 4,000,000 Homeless Migrants. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. LCCN 41026994.
  13. Collins, Jr., Henry Hill (1941). The Constitutions of the 16 Constituent or Union Republics of the USSR: A Comparative Analysis. New York: American Russian Institute in New York. LCCN 50013922.
  • Chambers, Whittaker (1952). Witness. New York: Random House. pp. 31, 334, 340–341, 345, 347, 379, 419, 433, 510, 543, 553, 583, 619–622, 624, 684–686. LCCN 52005149.
  • Chambers, Whittaker, testimony before HUAC 3 August 1948
  • Haynes, John Earl, and Harvey Klehr, Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America, Yale University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-300-08462-5
  • Haynes, Jr., John Earl; Klehr, Harvey E.; Vassiliev, Alexander (2009). Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America. Yale University Press. pp. 14, 29, 244, 268 (Bela Gold and Henry Collins), 556. Retrieved 11 June 2017.
  • Weinstein, Allen, and Alexander Vassiliev, The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America - The Stalin Era (New York: Random House, 1999)
  • Vassiliev, Alexander, "A.Gorsky's Report to Savchenko S.R., 23 December 1949", "Failures List".
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