Christian Jacob Hedemann was born at Flensborg in the Dukedom of Slesvig, Denmark on May 25, 1852; he was the son of a military surgeon Christian August Ferdinand Hedemann, 1810-1879, and his wife Caroline Amalie Cloos, 1824-1867.
Christian Jacob Hedemann married Meta Marie Magdalene Nissen in Denmark October 27, 1877; she was born at Copenhagen June 23, 1850.
Christian Jacob Hedemann was educated at the famous boarding School Herlufsholm (founded 1565), and at the Danish Technical University from which he graduated. In 1870-1878 he served as a draughtsman and constructor of machinery at Burmeister & Wain at Copenhagen. (Wangel)
“A friend of his father, August Unna, a Danish sugar plantation owner on Hana, Maui an isolated part of the islands, offered Christian Hedemann a position as chief engineer.” (Davis)
In 1878 he came to Hawaii and became factory manager and engineer on the Hana plantation. (Nellist) Hedemann was responsible for the construction of sugar mill machinery to be delivered to Hana.
This appointment turned out to become a 6-years employment, and a life-long friendship. In 1884 he came to Honolulu Iron Works in order to construct machinery for sugar cane industry. (Wangel)
When Mr. Hedemann joined the Honolulu Iron Works in 1884, it was little more than a repair shop. With the development of the sugar industry on a large scale in Hawaii, the plant began the manufacture of sugar mill machinery and the furnishing of complete sugar factories. It has constructed most of the modern sugar mills in the Territory. (Nellist)
As a manufacturer of sugar cane factory equipment he got Honolulu Iron Works to become leading in the world. 1904 he was appointed general manager of Honolulu Iron Works. (Wangel)
In 1905, Mr. Hedemann realized the need for a New York branch and, against the advice of many leading business men of Honolulu, an office was opened in small quarters at No. 11 Broadway, New York City.
All purchasing for the iron works was then done directly through this office, thus dispensing with Eastern agents, and contracts for the furnishing of sugar factories and equipment in Puerto Rico, Cuba, Mexico and Louisiana were obtained. One of these was for the largest sugar factory in the world, located in Cuba, having a daily grinding capacity of 9,000 tons of cane.
Hedemann also went to Japan and Formosa and secured contracts for the building of seven large sugar mills, all of the machinery being built at the Honolulu works, and later fifteen sugar factories were constructed in the Philippines.
The Honolulu Iron Works had a plant in Manila where the requirements of the Philippines are met and two dry docks for the repairing of local ships. The New York office of the Honolulu Iron Works Co. became a large division and occupied a large portion of two floors in the famous Woolworth Building, besides operating a branch engineering office in Havana, Cuba. (Nellist)
1917 he retired from Iron Works Management, retained as Advisory and Technical Director, 3rd Vice President of the firm. (Wangel)
Hedemann was also a noted, although amateur, photographer. “Hedemann carried a camera with him, having taken up photography as a natural extension of his fascination with mechanical developments.”
“He made a visual record of his experience in the islands, photographing the family’s exotic surroundings and providing evidence of its well being, that could be kept for posterity and shared with his relatives in Denmark.”
“He created a virtually unrivalled view of 19th century Hawaii, highlighting change and industrial development in the islands. … Hedemann’s first dated photograph, a view of his house with a Danish flag flying gaily overhead was taken February 1, 1880.” (Davis)
“Early in 1883 Hedemann went to considerable trouble to convert his carriage shed into a small studio where he could take portraits. To illuminate the room, he made sections of the roof removable, creating a makeshift skylight.”
“Using plans from early photo journals, he had a portable reflector and head rests made in the blacksmith and carpenter shops at the mill.”
“In this ‘Big Photo Studio in Hana, Sandwich Islands’, as he jokingly called it, Hedemann executed a body of work of lasting importance.”
“Opening the studio not only enhanced his ability to control the photographic environment but also created a neutral location where the haole (Caucasian) photographer could establish a formal relationship with unfamiliar sitters.”
“Before starting the studio, Hedemann’s portraits were limited to family members and fellow Danes; now he proceeded to produce a remarkable visual inventory of the growing ethnic diversity in Hana.”
“Photographs he took there, as Meta noted later, depict ‘the many different people who came around to work in the fields from time to time … Southern Islanders, Chinese, Portuguese, and even a small colony of Scandinavians.’” (Davis)
“Hedemann took his camera inside sugar mills, and the Honolulu Iron Works. His photographs of the mills reflect personal pride in his accomplishments as well as the prevailing fervor of the steam age and Hedemann’s love of ‘beautiful things for the sake of their perfection of design and intricate workmanship.’”
“The gleaming sugar mill machinery of Hana Plantation provided forms pleasing to the photographer’s eye but also emblems of the industrial era.”
“Hedemann helped organize the Hawaiian Camera Club, drawing amateur photographers he knew in Honolulu together with others he had met during his travels around the islands on Iron Works business.” (Davis)
In March, 1917, he was decorated by the King of Denmark as a “Knight of Dannebrog.” He became an American citizen in 1903. (Nellist)
