Thor M. Smith Papers. 1934 - 1980. Photographs
Title:
Thor M. Smith Papers. 1934 - 1980. Photographs
This series consists of photographs compiled by Thor Merritt Smith during his lifetime.
Most of the photographs are from Smith’s service in the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II, during which he was an intelligence, and then public relations, officer. This includes his time during 1944-45 as Chief of U.S. Press Policy Section and Public Relations Representative at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) Advance Command Post under General Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Also from the WWII period are several photographs featuring Smith’s wife, journalist Mary Benton Smith, and their daughters; Smith's brother, Dale (a pilot); and other family members. Some of the family photos were taken upon Thor Smith’s return home from service.
The remainder of the series includes later photographs such as ID photos of Thor and Mary Smith, portraits of Thor Smith in his Air Force Reserve uniform, and several photos from a post-war tour of U.S. activities in the Far East on which Thor Smith was invited by Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson in 1947. There are also photographs commemorating occasions when Smith hosted notables such as Dwight D. Eisenhower and Earl Warren at the San Francesco Press Club.
Additionally, the series includes a set of eight photographs taken by Mary Benton Smith on a trip she took to the Philippines in 1966.
Other subjects appearing in the photographs of this series include: B-17 bombers, bombs, Christmas, GMC Duck, journalism, journalists, and war correspondents.
The photographs feature locations in: England, France, Japan, Korea, and Germany (specifically, Torgau).
Persons of interest also include: Frank A. Allen, Jr., Henry Harley Arnold, Omar Bradley, Harold Roe Bull, Harry C. Butcher, Erwin D. Canham, William C. Chase, Winston Churchill, Raymond Clapper, Andrew Brown Cunningham, R. Ernest Dupuy, Hans Georg von Friedeburg, William Milton Gross, Leslie C. Hollis, Roy Wilson Howard, Alfred Jodl, Ernest Joseph King, Laurence Sherman Kuter, Trafford Leigh-Mallory, Douglas MacArthur, George C. Marshall, Bernard Law Montgomery, Kay Summersby Morgan, Merrill Mueller, George S. Patton, Jr., Bertram Home Ramsey, Jack Redding, Walter Bedell Smith, Joseph Warren Stilwell, Walter C. Sweeney, Maxwell Taylor, Arthur William Tedder, Charles Ralfe Thompson, Harry Truman, John Francis Martin Whiteley, and Edward Frederick Lindley Wood.
ArchivalResource:
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7535272 View
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