A German immigrant-turned-professional chef, Heinrich Schmitz
meticulously journaled his life’s adventures as evident by the 22
scrapbooks at Delaware County Historical Society.
From photographs of snow-covered mountains and German villages to
Christmas cards and boarding passes, the scrapbooks have many
annotations in both English and German outlining Schmitz’s adventures.
Originally from Spiegelau, Bavaria, Germany, Heinrich Schmitz immigrated
to the United States in the late 1950’s. He worked a series of jobs and his
work as a cook took him from the Princeton Hotel in Avalon, N.J. in the late
1950’s to the Glen Mills Country Club in the early 1960’s to the Wilmington
Country Club in Delaware as well as Philadelphia’s Main Line, upstate
Pennsylvania, Greenville, Del. and into the Pocopson Home.
Schmitz was also a personal chef for Albert M. Greenfield during the late
1950’s at his home in the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia. In his day,
Greenfield was a prominent businessman in Philadelphia.
In the late 1970’s, he married Edna Butterworth and they resided on
Buttercup Farm in Glen Mills.
The 22 books in the Schmitz collection are his handmade journals that
chronicle his journeys from pre-war Germany to his life in the United States
from the late 1950’s to 1979.
They include handwritten entries, photographs, drawings, letters,
newspapers, articles, stamps, postcards and other memorabilia that
represent his life story.
For instance, there are Allegheny Airlines boarding passes as well as
holiday cards, one from 1959 and another with a stained glass window.
There’s even a personal identification card that lists Schmitz as living at
411 Lancaster Pike in Haverford. His telephone number is listed as MI2-
2497.
There are many photographs, some as small as 1 ½ inches by 2 inches.
They depict a myriad of scenes - one a portrait of a smiling family with
multiple generations depicted; another, the billowing sails of the USCGC
Eagle, one of the U.S. Coast Guard’s tall ships to the villages and
mountains and scenes of boats being rowed on a lake.
The Schmitz collection is housed at the home of Delaware County
Historical Society, located at 408 Avenue of the States in Chester. It is
open to the public from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday and Friday; 1 p.m. to
6:30 p.m. Thursday; and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. Parking is free in lot
behind the building or across the street in the city’s municipal lot.
For more information or for ways to get involved, please call 610-359-0832.
Immigrating from Germany in the 1950's, Heinrich Schmitz captured his adventures in a series of 22 scrapbooks that contain everything from pictures to holiday cards to boarding passes.
Some boarding passes from Allegheny Airlines hail back to an earlier era of flying in the Heinrich Schmitz collection.
In this scrapbook, Heinrich Schmitz's pictures are 1 1/2 inches by 2 inches in dimension.
Heinrich Schmitz collected a volume of stamps, including those pictured here from India.
There are also holiday cards, such as this one from Susan Bland dating 1959, in the Heinrich Schmitz collection.
Among Heinrich Schmitz's photographs are this one of a tall ship, the USCGC Eagle.