Guide to the Harry M. Smith Papers 1932-1977


Search this Finding Aid





Table of Contents

• Descriptive Summary
• Information on Use
• Access
• Restrictions on Use
• Citation
• Biographical Note
• Scope Note
• Related Resources
• Subject Headings
• INVENTORY
• Series I: Personal
• Series II: Correspondence
• Series III: Research and Writings
• Series IV: Professional
• Series V: Oversize
• Series VI: Restricted

Descriptive Summary

Information on Use

Access

The collection is open for research, with the exception of material in Series VI. This series contains restricted donor records for the human subjects of Smith’s genetics research in the 1950s and 1960s. These materials are restricted indefinitely.

Restrictions on Use

Series IV, Professional, includes glass lantern slides from Smith’s early teaching career. Researchers will need to consult with staff about equipment for accessing these items.

Citation

When quoting material from this collection, the preferred citation is: Smith, Harry M. Papers, [Box #, Folder #], Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

Biographical Note

Harry Madison Smith (b. June 21, 1918, d. October 16, 2003) was a Zoology, Biology, and Genetics professor who taught at several universities in the United States and at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon. Mid-career, Smith shifted the focus of his research from zoology to human genetics and was funded by the U.S. Government to study Middle Eastern populations. Smith was born on June 21, 1918, in Macomb, Illinois to James M. Smith and Grace Martha Smith. Smith and his older brother Elbert were raised by their mother, a school teacher, in Hammond, Indiana. After graduating from George Rogers Clark High School in 1935, Smith enrolled at the University of Chicago. He completed his Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences in 1939 and began graduate study under celebrated ecologist Warder Clyde Allee, who continued to serve as Smith’s mentor throughout his early career. A University of Chicago Graduate Honor Scholar from 1939-1940 and Ridgway Fellow from 1940 -1942, Smith completed his dissertation on redwing blackbirds and was awarded a PhD in Zoology in June 1942.

Smith entered the military in 1942 and served until 1946 in the U.S. Army as a 1st Lieutenant in the Sanitation Corps. Smith’s military assignments included Malaria Control Specialist and Sanitary Engineer at posts in the continental United States and New Guinea. Returning to his family’s home in Whiting, Indiana, after his discharge, Smith briefly taught zoology courses at the University of Chicago. He married Mildred Rosetta Gutknecht, a school teacher, on June 12, 1946.

Smith held several teaching positions in American and foreign universities from the late 1940s to the early 1950s. From 1946-1948, he was an Instructor and Assistant Professor of Zoology at the University of Arkansas. He taught at the University of Wyoming in Laramie from 1948-1952 as an Assistant Professor of Zoology. In 1952, Smith was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and traveled to Burma, teaching at the University College, Mandalay, and collecting zoological specimens. From 1953-1954, Smith served as an Associate Professor of Biology at Catholic University and lectured at Middlebury College. During this time, Smith held memberships in a number of professional organizations, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science; American Association of University Professors; Ecological Society of America; American Society of Zoologists; American Ornithologists’ Union; Society of Systematic Zoology; and several regional ornithological societies.

In the mid-1950s, Smith became interested in genetics and began researching human subjects. From 1954-1958, Smith worked as an Assistant Professor of Genetics at the American University of Beirut. He returned to the United States in 1958 as a National Institutes of Health Public Health Service Research Fellow. Smith took courses in genetics at Columbia University, worked at the New York Board of Health and Mount Sinai Hospital as a Research Associate in Hematology, and presented papers on a North Carolina Cherokee community and the Marshall Islands. To conclude his fellowship, Smith served as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Blood Group Reference Laboratory at the Lister Institute in London and conducted a survey of a Yoruba village as a Research Fellow at University College, Ibadan, in western Nigeria.

After returning briefly to his post at the American University of Beirut, Smith taught at Springfield College in Massachusetts as an Associate Professor of Biology and Project Director of Fieldwork in Middle Eastern Countries and of Records and Laboratory Units at the college. In 1962, Springfield College granted Smith three years of academic leave to serve as the Principal Investigator on a project entitled “Sero-anthropology of blood groups in the Near East.” The project sought to map the blood types of research subjects by ethnic and religious groups across Lebanon, Palestine, Armenia, and Jordan, and included comparative data from Afghanistan and Nepal. Smith’s “Anthropological Blood Grouping Laboratory” was based at the American University of Beirut and funded by a National Institutes of Health grant. During this time, he traveled to Russia to present his research at a genetics conference.

Following his time at Springfield College, Smith taught at the United States Government’s Enewetak Marine Biology Laboratory from 1968-1970. At the time of his death, Smith was listed as a Geneticist and Zoologist employed by the U.S. Government.

Harry M. Smith died at age 85 in Columbus, Indiana, on October 16, 2003.

Scope Note

The Harry M. Smith Papers are organized into six series: Series I: Personal; Series II: Correspondence; Series III: Research and Writings; Series IV: Professional; Series V: Oversize; and Series VI: Restricted. This collection contains correspondence, notes, reference articles, WWII service records, typescripts of articles, photographs, scrapbooks, glass lantern slides, and medical data from research subjects. Materials date between 1932 and 1977, with the bulk of the material dating between 1950 and 1967.

Series I, Personal, contains biographical directory entries from throughout Smith’s career, notes and coursework from his undergraduate and graduate study at the University of Chicago, and a travel insurance policy related to his work with the U.S. Government.

Series II, Correspondence, contains outgoing and incoming mail, arranged chronologically. Frequent correspondents include Smith’s graduate advisor, W.C. Allee, and colleagues from his teaching and laboratory research at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon. This series contains both personal and professional correspondence.

Series III, Research and Writings, contains notes, reference articles, summary statistics, newspaper clippings, article drafts, correspondence, and raw data from Smith’s research in zoology and human genetics. The bulk of the material is related to the study of human blood types in the Eastern Mediterranean, Middle East, and Afghanistan. Materials in this series encompass mid-20th century research on population genetics, and often document or employ racial and ethnic stereotypes present in scientific and anthropological literature of the time.

Series IV, Professional, contains material documenting Smith’s employment, service during WWII, and membership in various organizations and boards. Material in this series includes notes and assignments pertaining to zoology and biology courses taught by Smith, a specimen catalog from his Fulbright Scholarship in Burma, and notes from his National Institutes of Health Public Health Research Fellowship.

Series V, Oversize, contains a variety of oversize items. Of particular note are early computer printouts sent to Smith in the late 1960s as an example of how to analyze genetic data. This series also contains a handwritten copy of Smith’s undergraduate and graduate transcripts.

Series VI, Restricted, contains restricted donor records for the human subjects of Smith’s genetics research in the 1950s and 1960s. These materials are restricted indefinitely.

Related Resources

Allee, Warder Clyde. Papers

University of Chicago. Department of Botany. Records

University of Chicago. Department of Zoology. Records

University of Chicago Press. Records

Subject Headings

• Allee, W. C. (Warder Clyde), 1885-1955
• American University of Beirut
• Columbia University
• Mid-Pacific Research Laboratory
• National Institutes of Health (U.S.)
• Springfield College
• University of Arkansas
• University of Chicago
• University of Wyoming
• Blood types
• Blood groups
• Population genetics
• Zoology

INVENTORY