Henry H. Fick

Born in Lübeck, Germany, in 1849, Henry H. Fick later emigrated to the United States as a young man and eventually made Cincinnati the center of much of his career. He taught German and art in the public schools, became Superintendent of Drawing, and later returned from a period in Chicago to take on leading roles in Cincinnati's school system, including head of German instruction, principal, and assistant superintendent.

Fick was more than a school administrator. He wrote textbooks and children's books, contributed to the German-language press, and was remembered as a poet and advocate for German-American culture. Sources from the University of Cincinnati and the Max Kade Institute also describe him as a prolific writer whose teaching methods and school texts were widely used.

He was also an important collector of German-Americana. The library he assembled on German-American life and literature became the foundation of a major collection at the University of Cincinnati, helping preserve a cultural world that was deeply affected by the anti-German backlash of World War I. Fick died in Chicago in 1935.