Dunbar M. Hinrichs Collection, 1917-1975
| Archives of the American Field Service and AFS Intercultural Programs
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Administrative/Biographical History
The son of Mary Wait and Lewis Hinrichs, Dunbar Maury Hinrichs was born in Brooklyn, NY on January 19, 1894. Hinrichs was educated at Montclair Academy and Cornell University. Shortly after graduating from Cornell in 1917, he joined AFS as a member of the “Cornell Unit” of the American Field Service. Though Hinrichs and other Cornell volunteers initially intended to serve as ambulance drivers, they were instead asked to join one of the newly-formed AFS camion units upon arrival in Paris. The AFS camion units, placed in the French Réserve #3 (also known as the Réserve Mallet because it was under the leadership of Colonel Richard Mallet), were created as Franco-American transportation units intended to help replenish the seriously depleted ranks of the French Automobile Service. AFS was able to promise immediate front-line assignments for Hinrichs and other Cornell Unit members as an incentive to join the AFS camion service, which they did. The Cornell Unit and other sections combined to form the Group Genin, or Transport Materiél [Etats-] Unis (TMU) 526, comprising the first Franco-American unit within the Réserve Mallet. Hinrichs served in TMU 526 for seven months (from May-November 1917), during which time he moved ammunition and trench material from the railheads on the Soissons-Fismes road to the Chemin des Dames front. In the autumn of 1917, the U.S. military officially absorbed the AFS ambulance and camion units into its ranks. The Réserve Mallet became an official American adjunct of the French Army under the United States Motor Transport Corps (USMTC), and grew significantly as contingents of new volunteers arrived from the United States. At this time, Hinrichs was commissioned as Second Lieutenant in the USMTC.
Hinrichs helped to coordinate reunions and implement new programs for the AFS Association, the post-war AFS organization, after World War I. The first post-war reunion for AFS camion and ambulance drivers was held in New York in June 1920, when the American Field Service Association was founded. The members of the Association, including Hinrichs, sporadically issued newsletters and coordinated future reunions. Hinrichs was pivotal in reorganizing the members of the Réserve Mallet by maintaining contact and helping to coordinate their reunions.
When AFS was reactivated as a volunteer ambulance corps in World War II, Hinrichs continued his involvement through various administrative and leadership efforts. He helped recruit volunteers for the organization soon after it was reactivated. Hinrichs was then commissioned as a caption and sent overseas with AFS in the summer of 1942. Upon his arrival in the Middle East, he was attached to the AFS headquarters in Cairo and worked on its organization and expansion. He also established the AFS Club in Cairo in December 1942, which was inspired by the AFS Club in Paris during World War I. He returned home for medical reasons in March 1943, then reenlisted and returned to France in late 1944 with AFS unit FR 4 to work in the office before he was released from active duty in April 1945. During this time he may have also been promoted to major, though whether the final decision for the promotion was approved by AFS Director General Stephen Galatti is unclear. Hinrichs was entitled to several commendations for his years of service including the French Commemorative Medal, Africa Star, and King’sMedal for Service in the Cause of Freedom.
After the war, he continued to volunteer for AFS as a Vice President and Director of the newly-created AFS secondary school exchange programs. He helped design promotional materials and also worked on the early scholarship committee. Additionally, Hinrichs helped to coordinate the AFS Club for the wartime volunteers, and worked on the creation of the AFS Memorial Garden at the Franco-American museum at the Château de Blérancourt in Picardie, France before attending its opening in 1964.
Hinrichs documented his personal experiences through art and writing. He was an artist, creating drawings and paintings, taking photographs, and writing throughout the course of his life. He also published six books: Mrs. Captain Kidd (1952), We Met By the Way (2 volumes, 1975), The Fateful Voyage of Captain Kidd (1952), A Round Unvarnished Tale (1966) and Plain Tales From the Sea (1961). Many of these books recall Hinrichs’ experiences with AFS.
Hinrichs married Edith Dorland, with whom he had a daughter, Nancy Roche. He was the vice president and director of the General Exchange Insurance Corporation of General Motors for 23 years, retiring in 1942 before his volunteer service in World War II. Dunbar Maury Hinrichs died in St. Petersburg, Florida on December 13, 1979 at the age of 85, survived by his wife, daughter, grandson, and three great-grandchildren.
Subjects (links to similar collections)AFS Intercultural Programs
American Field Service (American Ambulance Field Service)
American Field Service--FR 4
American Field Service--France Units (FR)
American Field Service--ME 16
American Field Service--Middle East Units (ME)
American Field Service--Réserve Mallet
American Field Service--TMU 526
American Field Service--Transport Matériel [États-] Unis (TMU)
Camion drivers
Cornell University
Egypt
France
Galatti, Stephen
Hinrichs, Dunbar M. (Dunbar Maury), 1894-1979
United States Motor Transport Corps (U.S.M.T.C.)
Wallace, William Henry, Jr.
World War, 1914-1918
World War, 1939-1945
Forms of Material (links to similar genres) Administrative Information
The Dunbar Hinrichs Collection consists of a variety of materials documenting his long involvement with AFS, including his volunteer service with the American Field Service during World Wars I and II, the AFS Association in between the wars, and the AFS secondary school exchange programs established in 1946.
The bulk of the collection includes papers related to his involvement with the American Field Service during the World Wars, including correspondence to and from Hinrichs while overseas, in which his growing involvement in the organization can be seen. Several notable people who corresponded regularly with Hinrichs include AFS Director General Stephen Galatti, Major William Perry, Assistant Director General William H. Wallace, W.W. Philips, French Colonel Richard Mallet, and later with George Rock, author of The History of the American Field Service, 1920-1955, to which Hinrichs contributed some of his wartime accounts. Within these letters Hinrichs suggested how to improve the AFS Cairo headquarters, including the implementation of daily schedules, an official organizational structure, rosters, and lists of equipment. There is also correspondence discussing his books about his AFS service, his mental health and personal life during his AFS service, as well as several letters to and from his wife, Edith Dorland Hinrichs. Other wartime documents include rosters of AFS volunteers, official identification cards, travel documents, newspaper clippings, AFS files and memos (including a list of personal equipment for volunteers), promotional materials, and receipts of purchases. There are also a number of personal writings by Hinrichs, some of which were early drafts of his later published books. Most of these writings, however, are essays or reports on his wartime activities, including how the AFS headquarters in Cairo during World War II could be improved. The collection also includes two speeches Hinrichs gave, in attempts to recruit volunteers and raise money during World War II.
In addition to the papers, the collection includes a scrapbook documenting his involvement in the World Wars. The scrapbook contains photographs, letters, AFS memoranda, and other media from 1917-1941, including his original pencil and watercolor drawings of Cairo, Italy, and France. Some loose materials were found tucked into pages of the scrapbook, which were separated into their own folder.
In addition to the World Wars, the collection also documents his involvement with the AFS Association and AFS secondary school exchange programs, including correspondence and early drafts of promotional material regarding fundraising for the AFS scholarship program, which Hinrichs worked on directly.
The collection also contains some of his artwork, including copies of both volumes of We Met By the Way, which contain inserts of sketches of the French countryside as well as portraits of other AFS volunteers. There are two paintings, one of abstract clouds with the original AFS logo, the other a drawing of a French town and a camion truck from World War II. Additional drawings and photographs taken by Hinrichs during his time in France and Cairo during the World Wars are contained in marked folders as well as within the scrapbook.