Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr.

Herbert Waide "Bert" Hemphill Jr. (January 21, 1929 – May 8, 1998) was an American collector of folk art.

Hemphill was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey. His father, Herbert W. Hemphill, Sr., was a businessman who had made his fortune with a fleet of wicker rolling chairs on the Atlantic City boardwalk; his mother, Emma Bryant Bradley Hemphill, was the niece of William Clark Bradley. She died when her son was ten. She collected Dresden china, which fired in him his own interest in collecting. As a youth he accumulated marbles, stamps, duck decoys, puzzle jugs, and glass bottles. Later he attended the Lawrenceville School and the Solebury School, where he evinced an interest in art and theater. In 1948 he spent time at Bard College working with Stefan Hirsch. and a Chandelier of unknown date. Also in the collection is a 1978 portrait of Hemphill by Howard Finster, THE HERBERT WADE HEMPHILL J.R. COLLECTION FOUNDER OF AMERICAN FOLK ART THE MAN WHO PRESERVES THE LONE AND FORGOTTEN. THE UNKNOWN COLLECTION, whose title is taken in part from the Folk Art Society's statement upon awarding him the Award of Distinction, in which he was described as "the man who preserves the lone and forgotten".