Henry Hill Collins Jr. (1905–1961) was an American government official in theNew DealNational Recovery Administration in the 1930s and later theAgricultural Adjustment Administration. He was a member of theCommunist Party USA (CPUSA) and theWashington D.C.–basedWare group, along withAlger Hiss,Lee Pressman,Harry Dexter White and others. He was also a "pioneer in the compiling of ornithological field guides."^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

Collins was born in 1905 inPhiladelphia, a "scion of a Philadelphia manufacturing family" in paper products. According to Collins, his ancestors came from England in 1640. He received a BA fromPrinceton University and a business degree fromHarvard University.^[1][2][4][5]

Collins was a childhood friend of Alger Hiss in Baltimore.^[3][6]Whittaker Chambers also described Collins as "my personal friend."^[1]

Initially, Collins worked in the family paper business. He left during theGreat Depression for work in the federal government during theNew Deal.^[5]

In 1933, Collins worked in theNational Recovery Administration. He also worked at theAgricultural Adjustment Administration and theUS Department of Labor.^[2][3][7] He also worked for the Soil Conservation Service, the US Department of Labor, and a House committee on migration.^[3] In 1941, he joined the U.S. Small Business Committee, then a Military Affair subcommittee.^[3]

During World War II, Collins served as a captain in the Army, fought at theBattle of the Bulge, and won three ribbons and "five European campaign stars." Immediately after the war, he worked for six months as a district official for displaced persons in Germany as part of the States Department's division of occupied territories. Collins remained in government service until 1947.^[4][3][5]

In 1948, he was serving as executive director of theAmerican Russian Institute in New York and living at 58 Park Avenue, New York (as testified beforeHUAC in 1948).^{[2][3][7][8][9][10]}

In August 1948, as the Hiss Case began, he appeared under subpoena before theHouse Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and would answer no questions of substance.^[3][4]

In 1950, Ware lived at the San Cristobal Valley Ranch nearLos Alamos, New Mexico, and its atomic proving grounds. During testimony in 1953, Collins declared, "The ranch was a perfectly legitimate business operation."^[3]

In 1952,Nathaniel Weyl confirmed under oath that Collins had been a member of theWare Group founded byHarold Ware and inherited byWhittaker Chambers.^[3]

Subpoenaed again in 1953, he declared, "I will not be a finger man for this committee."^[3]

Collins marriedSusan B. Anthony II, great-niece ofSusan B. Anthony.^[2] He married Mary Evans Collins with whom he had two sons and one daughter.^[5]

Collins once spotted aprothonotary warbler for Alger Hiss.^[5]

Collins died age 57 on May 25, 1961, at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx after a car crash two days earlier.^[2][5]

In addition to books on American and Soviet government, Collins may have authored some dozen books on birds.^[11]

• America's Own Refugees; Our 4,000,000 Homeless Migrants (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1941)^[12]
• The Constitutions of the 16 Constituent or Union Republics of the USSR: A Comparative Analysis (1950)^[13]
• Bent's Life Histories of North American Birds (edited) (1960)
• Bird Watchers' Guide (1961)

• Chambers, Whittaker (1952).Witness. New York: Random House. pp. 31, 334,340–341, 345, 347, 379, 419, 433, 510, 543, 553, 583,619–622, 624,684–686.LCCN 52005149.
• Chambers, Whittaker, testimony before HUAC 3 August 1948
• Haynes, John Earl, and Harvey Klehr,Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America,Yale University Press, 1999.ISBN 0-300-08462-5
• Haynes, Jr., John Earl; Klehr, Harvey E.; Vassiliev, Alexander (2009).Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America. Yale University Press. pp. 14, 29, 244, 268 (Bela Gold and Henry Collins), 556. Retrieved11 June 2017.
• Weinstein, Allen, and Alexander Vassiliev,The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America - The Stalin Era (New York: Random House, 1999)
• Vassiliev, Alexander, "A.Gorsky's Report to Savchenko S.R., 23 December 1949", "Failures List".

• 1905 births
• Members of the Communist Party USA
• American spies for the Soviet Union
• American people in the Venona papers
• 1961 deaths
• Harvard Business School alumni
• Princeton University alumni
• American people of English descent
• People from Philadelphia

• Articles with short description
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