Smith, Albert

Epithet: of Roseville Ohio

British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000000498.0x000038

Epithet: of Add MS 35027

British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000001199.0x0001e6

Albert Richard Smith (1816-1860) was an author, public lecturer, and mountaineer. He was best known for his travel lectures, which included entertaining accounts of his travels in Egypt, India, and Turkey.

Smith climbed Mont Blanc in 1851 and, in 1852, produced a show based on his experience at the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, complete with a Swiss chalet and St. Bernard dogs. The show, which ran for 200 performances (closing 6 July 1858) had its critics. Peter H. Hansen writes that "Smith's Mont Blanc entertainment dismayed some critics. John Ruskin referred to his exploits as 'a Cockney ascent of Mont Blanc ... Smith's show blurred the boundaries of between the insular and vulgar cockney, and the educated and the genteel classes." ( ODNB )

From the guide to the Albert Smith Letter to "Webster" and "Programme of Mr Albert Smith's Ascent of Mont Blanc" (MS 265), 1851-1852, (University of Colorado at Boulder Libraries. Special Collections Dept.)