Hendrik Springer (1805-1867) was an uncle of the architect, draftsman and watercolorist J.L. Springer (1850-1915). His father, Willem Springer (1778-1857), was a carpenter-contractor. Younger brothers were carpenter (Jan Cornelis, 1813-1891), architect (Willem, 1815-1907) and painter (Cornelis, 1817-1891). Hendrik Springer began his practical training in an Amsterdam carpenter's store. He then took drawing classes at the Royal Academy of Art in Amsterdam. Here he also became a teacher and acting director. In 1835, he established himself as an architect. He participated in many architectural competitions, such as those for the Amsterdam Stock Exchange in 1837, the rebuilding of the wooden Amstel Church and the construction of the Reformed Church in Apeldoorn. He also designed organ cabinets for the Bätz firm in Utrecht. In In 1849 he translated the influential eighteenth-century study of ancient Greece by James Stuart and Nicholas Revett. Also in 1867, he wrote a manual for "rectilinear, architectural and tool drawing.