Smith, Corinna Lindon, 1876-1965

Corinna Haven (Putnam) Smith was born in New York City, the daughter of George Haven Putnam (the son of George Palmer Putnam, founder of the publishing firm of G.P. Putnam's Sons) and Rebecca Kettel (Shepard) Putnam. Her paternal aunt was the well-known physician and suffragist, Mary Putnam Jacobi. Corinna entered Bryn Mawr College in 1893 but did not graduate. She met the artist Joseph Lindon Smith in Dublin, N.H., in 1898; they were married in 1899. In November of that year they travelled to Egypt, where Joseph painted art treasures recovered during archaeological digs. The Smiths spent much of their fifty-one-year marriage living abroad, especially in Egypt. They had three daughters.

Fascinated by Middle Eastern culture, Corinna began studying classical Arabic in 1901, eventually becoming fluent. A staunch Christian, she was also a serious student of Islam, passing a stringent oral exam conducted in Arabic by Muslim religious leaders on Islam and the Koran. In 1909 she signed up with a lecture bureau and began her career as a professional speaker, lecturing on Egyptian archaeology, Islam, and writers such as Henry James and Thomas Hardy.

During World War I, the Smiths worked with the Comité Franco-Américain pour la Protection des Enfants de la Frontière (Franco-American Committee for the Protection of the Children of the Frontier), which provided assistance to impoverished French children and their families. In 1920, she undertook a three-week tour of France and Germany to assess the damage suffered by over 200 factories in the two countries. As a result of this expedition, she wrote Rising Above the Ruins in France, which was published in 1920.

Returning to the U.S., she joined the Executive Committee of the Eastern Association (later known as the Association on American Indian Affairs) in 1924; two years later, the General Federation of Women's Clubs appointed her its national chair of Indian Welfare. After the death of her husband in 1950, Corinna adopted his middle name, calling herself Corinna Lindon Smith. She spent the next fifteen years working for diverse causes, including Native American rights, public health programs, narcotics control, and the rehabilitation of former female prisoners. She died in Dublin, N.H., in 1965.

From the description of Papers, 1851-1966 (inclusive). (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 122413473