Smithers, W. D.

Wilfred Dudley Smithers (1895-1981), photographer, writer, and photographic historian, was born in San Luis Potosí, Mexico. He moved with his family to San Antonio in 1905. A high school dropout, Smithers volunteered as an apprentice to Charles W. Archer, where he learned to take and develop photographs. He built his first camera in 1913.

Smithers worked as a driver for an army mule train from 1915 to 1917 and served in the United States Cavalry from 1917 to 1919. Stationed in San Diego, Smithers used the newly invented camera gun to train military pilots in aerial combat. After his honorable discharge, Smithers worked in Mexico as a pack train driver and returned to San Antonio one year later, where he ran a photography studio until 1929. He worked as a correspondent and freelancer for the San Antonio Light, the San Antonio Express, and Underwood and Underwood news service. His aerial photographs from this time were used as official army air corps pictures, and he developed a camera that could function unaffected by the blast from airplane propellers. Additionally, Smithers earned a living by photographing Mount Rushmore for sculptor John Gutzon Borglum and working on Texas films.

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