The Special Collections Division of The University of Texas at Arlington Libraries is pleased to announce the acquisition of the W. D. Smith, Inc. Commercial Photography negatives dating from the early 1940s through 1989. The W. D. Smith Company of Fort Worth was the city’s leading commercial photography firm during the last half of this century. The collection includes approximately 190,000 negatives, both black and white and color, which document the growth and development of Fort Worth, Tarrant County, and the North Texas region.

W. D. Smith was a native of Alvord, Texas, who began work as a professional photographer in Fort Worth in 1927. In the 1940s, his son, Gordon, a graduate of North Texas Agricultural College (now UTA), joined him as partner in the business. The company operated at 1307 West El Paso Street in the city until, in 1964-1965, the Smiths purchased property just off of Vickery Street and built the present studio. The building was the first studio built in Tarrant County specifically for the photography business and was the state-of-the-art in design for its time. Shortly after the opening of the new studio, the Fort Worth City Council changed the name of the street on which it was located to Photo Avenue.

During his lifetime (1907-1988), W. D. Smith built a reputation as Fort Worth’s finest commercial photographer. He was especially well known for his architectural photography because he had the rare ability to keep a correct vertical perspective when capturing the image of tall buildings. As a result of his reputation, a good portion of his commercial business was for construction progress photography. In addition, Smith was an avid local historian who knew photographers many years his senior, and they all allowed him to copy their historical photographs. The Smith Collection, as a result, has one of the largest extant collections of nineteenth and early twentieth century photos of North Texas.

Gordon Smith, W. D.’s son, was born in 1927 and worked closely with his father. Gordon has had two compelling interests in his life--flying and photography. Not surprisingly, he combined these interests when he went to work with his father, enabling the company to build a robust business in aerial photography. Aerial views of Fort Worth and Tarrant County are another strength of the collection.

Because of health reasons, Gordon is no longer able to operate the business, but he wanted to ensure that the company’s images were preserved and made available to the public. After a series of negotiations, UTA and Gordon and his wife reached a purchase/donation agreement that would bring the collection to Special Collections. At UTA, the Smith negatives complement other photographic collections held in the UTA Libraries’ Special Collections Division, including the Fort Worth Star-Telegram Collection, Fort Worth News Tribune Collection, Arlington Citizens-Journal Collection, Basil Clemons Collection, Will Wood Collection, and Jack White Collection, just to mention the larger collections. The Special Collections Division has more than one million images in its holdings and does a lively business in providing copy photographs for publications, advertising, television productions, and other products.

For more information about the Smith Collection, please contact:

Shirley Rodnitzky
Box 19497 UTA
Arlington, Texas 76019-0497
(817) 272-3393 (phone)
(817) 272-3360 (fax)
email: <rodnitzky@uta.edu>

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Special Collections
The University of Texas at Arlington Libraries
Phone: (817) 272-3393 * Fax: (817) 272-3360 * E-mail: Reference Desk

This page last update on Wednesday, June 25, 2003