Alfred Bendiner

Alfred Bendiner (23 July 1899 – 19 March 1964) was an American architect and artist, perhaps best known for his caricatures and cartoons.

Biography He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Hungarian immigrants Armin and Rachel Hartmann Bendiner. The family moved to Philadelphia when he was a boy, where he attended public schools, and graduated from Northeast High School in 1917.

Bendiner won a scholarship to the Pennsylvania Museum School, but left after a year to enlist in the Students' Army Training Corps at the University of Pennsylvania. He was a sergeant and still stationed in Philadelphia when World War I ended in November 1918, but his service earned him automatic admission to Penn.

Archaeological draftsman The University of Pennsylvania Museum sponsored archaeological excavations at Tepe Gawra and Khafaji, Iraq, in 1937. Bendiner went along as project draftsman on the 8-month excavation, drawing site plans and sections of the dig, and making measured drawings of the artifacts uncovered. He again worked as an archaeological draftsman on an excavation in Tikal, Guatemala, in 1960. Rachmaninoff had chosen the Philadelphia Orchestra under conductor Leopold Stokowski to perform the work's world premiere, November 6, 1936. Rachmaninoff died in 1943. The mural is illustrated in Bendiner's autobiography.