Arthur W. Grumbine was a telegraph operator with the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad and then Western Union until 1943. He built his first camera from a discarded cigar box at age 12 and bought his first commercial camera, a folding Kodak, as soon as he found full-time employment. He also did all of his own development and printing. Grumbine began to enter his photographs in juried exhibitions in his 30s, winning more than two dozen awards and prizes.
Grumbine began his professional career in photography after a friend working in Dupont’s Photo Products Division suggested he apply for a job there. In 1982, he began working in Dupont’s research laboratories as an entry-level employee. Twenty-three years and four promotions later, Grumbine retired from the company with five U.S. patents and twenty international ones. In his work, he primarily developed and refined Dupont’s Rotofilm and Screen Process Film for pre-computerized printing applications.
He published a three-part article series about his life in Dots and Dashes, the official magazine of the Morse Telegraph Club, in 1985 entitled The Era of Morse Telegraphy. Henry Grumbine donated his photographs to the New York Historical Society.
