Harold Smith Papers undated

ArchivalResource

Harold Smith Papers, undated

Harold Smith Papers undated

http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/tamwag/alba_099/alba_099.html

Harold Smith served as a volunteer with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in the Spanish Civil War. He was born in New York City on January 4, in either 1910 or 1912 (a later record differs, but a copy of his passport record lists him as aged 27 in 1937). He attended City College, joined the Communist Party in 1934, and worked as a trade-union organizer. He listed his occupation as "clerk" in 1937. He sailed to Europe in February 1937 and, after a stop-over in Paris, arrived in Spain in mid-March. Smith was wounded twice in combat. He recovered sufficiently to fight in the Ebro action around Villalba, and returned to the U.S. on the SS Ausonia in December 1938. After the war, Smith taught at the League for Seriously Disturbed Children. He died in 1970. The collection consists of twenty-four handwritten letters written in Spain. Most are from Smith to his girlfriend, identified only as "Jeanette." One is from Smith to his sister(?) Clara, and one from a friend and fellow volunteer, Harry "Jack" Boxer, to "Jeanette."

0.25 linear feet; (1 box)

Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives