William S. Heckscher
From 1918 to 1921, the family lived in the Netherlands while Heckscher's father served as the Weimar Republic's ambassador to The Hague; there, Heckscher enrolled at the Nederlandsch Lyceum. Heckscher pursued his interests in history and Flemish art by spending his off hours studying at the Dutch Royal Library, the Mauritshuis and the Kröller-Müller Museum, but was dismissed from the Lyceum in 1920 for "lack of scholarly potential". After the family returned to Hamburg, Heckscher attended the city's Kunstgewerbeschule, now the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg, but failed a class in ceramics.
Elise Forrest Harleston
In 1913, she met painter Edwin Harleston and they later became engaged. With Harleston's encouragement and financial support, Forrest traveled to New York City to enroll in the E. Brunel School of Photography in 1919. She was the only female of color attending the school and learned many photographic techniques from her German teachers. After graduation, she continued her studies at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, where she worked under C. M. Battey. Under his tutelage, Elise became a part of the artistic community that challenged racist stereotypes of African Americans, and her works reflected the image of the "New Negro".