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Copyright 2011-2018 John N. Lupia, III
Fig. 1. Photo of Harry F. Dunkhorst circa 1934. H. L. Lindquist, The Blue Book of Philately (N. Y., 1935) : 84
Heinrich "Harry" Friedrich Dunkhorst (1872-1945), was born on January 7, 1872, at Washington, D.C., son of Wilhelm G. Dunkhorst (1839-1911), a German immigrant and tobacconist, and Elizabeth C. Jacob Dunkhorst (1849-1897).
Harry Dunkhorst worked in the family Tobacco Shop, 1005 Seventh Street, N.W., Washington, D.C.
He began to operate as a stamp dealer in 1885, at the age of thirteen.
Fig. 2. Dunkhorst advertisement buying stamps in the Washington Times, Wednesday, March 3, 1897, page 9.
He was a stamp dealer located at 1005 7th Street, N.W., Washington, D. C. throughout his career.
Figs. 3, 4 & 5. Dunkhorst correspondence with the Chapman Brothers buying stamps, postmarked February 8, and April 9, and August 23, 1897, Washington, D. C. Courtesy Lupia Numismatic Library, Special Collection, The Chapman Family Correspondence Archive.
Fig. 6. Courier-News (Bridgewater, New Jersey), Thursday, December 16, 1897, page 5.
On January 24, 1906, he finally married Elizabeth "Lizzie" D. Blitt (1875-1949), at Washington, D.C., after eleven years of dating.
The 1910 U. S. Census lists him as the proprietor of a Tobacco Shop after his father's retirement.
He was APS Member No. 4235.
The 1920 U. S. Census lists him as Philatelist.
Dunkhorst's famous quote : "I suggest to my younger contemporaries that they take their stamps into their own experience by making themselves more closely acquainted with their significance, their utility, their purpose and effect. Stamps are not merely scraps of paper. Rather, they are fragments of history, symbols of progress out of antiquity . . . "
He died on November 27, 1945. He is buried at Prospect Hill Cemetery, Washington, D. C.
Bibliography :
The Morning Times, November 19, 1895, page 4 - cites Lizzie Blitt and Dunkhorst at the National Rifles Armory Ball.
H. L. Lindquist, The Blue Book of Philately (N. Y., 1935) : 84
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