Smith

Smith, Adam, 1723-90, Scottish economist, educated at Glasgow and Oxford. He became professor of moral philosophy at the Univ. of Glasgow in 1752, and while teaching there wrote his Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), which gave him the beginnings of an international reputation. He traveled on the Continent from 1764 to 1766 as tutor to the duke of Buccleuch and while in France met some of the physiocrats and began to write An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, finally published in 1776.

In that work, Smith postulated the theory of the division of labor and emphasized that value arises from the labor expended in the process of production. He was led by the rationalist current of the century, as well as by the more direct influence of Hume and others, to believe that in a laissez-faire economy the impulse of self-interest would bring about the public welfare; at the same time he was capable of appreciating that private groups such as manufacturers might at times oppose the public interest. Smith was opposed to monopolies and the concepts of mercantilism in general but admitted restrictions to free trade, such as the Navigation Acts, as sometimes necessary national economic weapons in the existing state of the world. He also accepted government intervention in the economy that reduced poverty and government regulation in support of workers.

Smith wrote before the Industrial Revolution was fully developed, and some of his theories were voided by its development, but as an analyst of institutions and an influence on later economists he has never been surpassed. His pragmatism, as well as the leaven of ethical content and social insight in his thought, differentiates him from the rigidity of David Ricardo and the school of early 19th-century utilitarianism. In 1778, Smith was appointed commissioner of customs for Scotland. His Essays on Philosophical Subjects (1795) appeared posthumously.

Smith, Alfred Emanuel, 1873-1944, American political leader, b. New York City. Reared in poor surroundings, he had no formal education beyond grade school and took various jobs—including work in the Fulton fish market—to help support his family. In 1895, through the help of a Tammany district leader, he was appointed a clerk in the office of the county commissioner of jurors. As a member (1904-15) of the New York state assembly, he took a prominent role in state Democratic politics, became (1913) speaker of the assembly, and gained a reputation for progressive policies. He was (1915-17) sheriff of New York co. and then was elected (1917) president of the New York City Board of Aldermen, the predecessor of the City Council.

In 1918, Smith was elected governor of New York. He was defeated for reelection in 1920 but regained the office in 1922 and was reelected twice again (1924, 1926). He proved a forceful and well-liked governor and achieved a much-needed overhauling of the state bureaucracy and passage of much reform legislation. In 1928, Smith, helped by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, won the Democratic nomination for president, the first Roman Catholic to receive this recognition. An ugly campaign ensued in which virulent anti-Catholic prejudice played a major part.

After his defeat by Herbert Hoover, Smith retired to private life, becoming (1929) president of the firm that owned and operated the Empire State Building in New York City. He also served (1932-34) as editor of the magazine New Outlook. He became a bitter opponent of President F. D. Roosevelt's New Deal policies and supported the Republican presidential candidates in 1936 and 1940. Smith was the author of Up to Now (1929).

Smith, Bessie, 1894-1937, American singer, b. Chattanooga, Tenn. About 1910 Smith became the protégée of Gertrude (Ma) Rainey, one of the earliest blues singers. After working in traveling shows she went to New York City, where she made (1923-28) recordings, accompanied by such outstanding artists as Louis Armstrong, Fletcher Henderson, and James P. Johnson. She quickly became the favorite singer of the jazz public. The power and somber beauty of her voice, coupled with songs representing every variety of the blues, earned her the title "Empress of the Blues." Around 1928, changing popular taste and her growing alcoholism led to a decline in her popularity. Though she continued to tour, her last years were embittered. She died after an automobile accident while on tour in Mississippi, the circumstances of which are discussed in Edward Albee's play The Death of Bessie Smith (1960). Numerous critics regarded her as the greatest of all jazz artists, and her fame increased enormously after her death.

Smith, Dave, 1942-, American poet, b. Portsmouth, Va. His early poetry established him as a sensitive observer of human behavior. His verse is often rooted in his native South and has been praised for its formal elegance. His major collections include Cumberland Station (1976), Goshawk, Antelope (1979), The Roadhouse Voices (1985), Cuba Night (1989), Fate's Kite: Poems, 1991-1995 (1995), The Wick of Memory: New and Selected Poems, 1970-2000 (2000), and Little Boats, Unsalvaged: Poems, 1992-2004 (2005). He has also written the novel Onliness (1981) and has edited several poetry anthologies.

Smith, David, 1906-65, American sculptor, b. Decatur, Ind. He arrived in New York City in 1926 and studied painting at the Art Students League. In the 1930s he began experimenting with sculpture and after 1935 he worked primarily in this medium. His mature works, in wrought iron and cut steel and often monumental in scale, exhibit abstract geometrical imagery and constructivist diagramming of space. Smith's sculptures were often created in series, e.g., Agricola (1952), Forging (1955), Zigs (1961), and Voltri (1962). His open constructions, such as Hudson River Landscape (Ogunquit Mus., Maine), stress the play of sculptural silhouettes against directional lines. Other works include abstract variations of natural subjects, such as Cockfight (Whitney Mus., New York City), and open, totemlike forms that frequently incorporate miscellaneous "found" objects.

Smith, Dean Edwards, 1931-, American college basketball coach, b. Emporia, Kans. After playing basketball at the Univ. of Kansas (grad. 1953), Smith joined (1954) the Air Force and became an assistant coach at the Air Force Academy. He began coaching at the Univ. of North Carolina in 1958, was appointed head coach in 1961, and led the UNC Tar Heels until his retirement in 1997, becoming one of the most successful (879 wins) and popular college basketball coaches. Under Smith, UNC won 17 Atlantic Coast Conference championships, a National Invitational Tournament (1971), and two NCAA titles (1982, 1993). A master of strategy, Smith initiated such plays as the "run and jump" defense and the "four corners" delay offense. Smith, who also coached the 1976 U.S. team to Olympic gold, was named to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1983.

Smith, Donald Alexander: see Strathcona and Mount Royal, Donald Alexander Smith, 1st Baron.

Smith, Edmund Kirby, or Edmund Kirby-Smith, 1824-93, American soldier, Confederate general in the Civil War, b. St. Augustine, Fla. A West Point graduate, he was cited for gallantry in the Mexican War. A major when he resigned from the U.S. army (Mar., 1861) to fight for the Confederacy, he served in the Shenandoah under J. E. Johnston, and fought at Bull Run (July). Smith led the Confederate advance into Kentucky and defeated a Union force at Richmond, Ky. (Aug., 1862). He ably commanded the isolated Trans-Mississippi Dept. (1863-65) and was promoted to general in Feb., 1864. The unsuccessful Red River campaign of Nathaniel P. Banks was directed against his forces. Smith was one of the last Confederate generals to surrender (May 26, 1865). After the war he was chancellor of the Univ. of Nashville from 1870 to 1875 and professor at the Univ. of the South, Sewanee, Tenn., from 1875 to 1893.

Smith, Emmitt (Emmitt James Smith 3d), 1969-, U.S. football player, b. Pensacola, Fla. An All-America running back at the Univ. of Florida, Smith spent nearly his entire National Football League career with the Dallas Cowboys (1990-2003); he also played for the Arizona Cardinals (2003-5). He is the league's all-time leading rusher (18,355 yards) and also holds the records for most seasons (11) with 1,000 yards rushing and most career and postseason rushing touchdowns. He is a four-time NFL rushing champion (1991-93, 1995) and and was the 1990 Rookie of the Year and the 1993 Most Valuable Player.

Smith, Sir George Adam, 1856-1942, Scottish biblical scholar and Hebraist, b. Calcutta (now Kolkata), India. He was professor of Old Testament language, literature, and theology in the United Free Church College of Glasgow from 1892 to 1909 and thereafter, until 1935, principal and vice chancellor of the Univ. of Aberdeen. He frequently traveled and lectured in the United States. Smith was knighted in 1916. He is especially noted for his Historical Geography of the Holy Land (2d ed. 1894, repr. 1966 of 1932 ed.).

Smith, George Elwood, 1930-, American physicist, b. White Plains, N.Y., Ph.D., Univ. of Chicago, 1959. Smith was a researcher at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, N.J., from 1959 until his retirement in 1986. In 2009 he shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Willard Boyle and Charles Kao. Smith and Boyle were cited for their invention of the charge-coupled device (CCD), an imaging semiconductor circuit that laid the foundation for digital photography. CCDs also are used in video cameras, medical diagnostics equipment, telescopes, and other imaging technology. Smith also did work on semiconducting ferroelectrics, electroluminescence, transition-metal oxides, and devices made with submicron lithography.

Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874, American reformer, b. Utica, N.Y. He spent much of his fortune in various reforms, most notably abolition. He was an organizer of the Liberty party and was candidate for governor of New York in 1840. A Congressman in 1853, he resigned in 1854. He again ran for governor in 1858. He is thought to have aided John Brown in planning the Harpers Ferry raid.

Smith, Gipsy, 1860-1947, English evangelist, originally named Rodney Smith, b. Wanstead. His father, a Gypsy, was also an evangelist. When Rodney was still a youth he became a member of General Booth's Christian Mission of London, which later became the Salvation Army. However, his connection with the organization was severed in 1882. From 1883, Smith's evangelistic labors gradually extended throughout England and to Scotland, the United States, Australia, and South Africa. He was a special missioner (1897-1912) of the National Free Church Council and after World War I toured England for the Methodist Church. He wrote Gipsy Smith: His Life and Work (rev. ed. 1925).

Smith, Goldwin, 1823-1910, English educator, historian, and journalist. Educated at Oxford, he took a prominent part in executing reforms at the university and became (1858) professor of modern history there. In many writings he expounded his ardently democratic, strongly anti-imperialistic, and antimilitaristic outlook. In 1868, Smith moved to the United States after accepting a position as professor of English literature and constitutional history at Cornell. Although he retained the professorship until 1881, his removal to Canada (1870) prevented him from assuming full-time duties at the university during most of his tenure. His journals, including the short-lived Nation and Leader, and his numerous studies in social science, literature, and religion earned him great respect in North America and Great Britain as an educator and a liberal social critic.

Smith, Hamilton Othanel, 1931-, American biologist, b. New York City, M.D. Johns Hopkins, 1956. A professor at the Univ. of Michigan and Johns Hopkins, Smith worked with Daniel Nathans and Werner Arber studying the nature of genes. The trio discovered and used certain enzymes that break down genetic material in order to study hereditary mutation in bacteria. For their work the three received the 1978 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with David H. Hubel and Tosten N. Wiesel.

Smith, Sir Harry George Wakelyn, 1787-1860, British general and administrator. He served in the Peninsular War and in the War of 1812 and was a brigade major at the battle of Waterloo. He commanded a division in the Kafir War (1834-36), in which he made his famous ride of 700 mi (1,130 km) from Capetown to Grahamstown in less than six days. He was governor of the newly annexed frontier territory, named Queen Adelaide prov., from 1835 until the annexation was repudiated by the British government in 1837. He was then transferred to India as deputy adjutant general. He distinguished himself in the Sikh Wars and was created baronet for the victory at Aliwal (1846). Returning to South Africa as governor of the Cape Colony (1847-52), he resumed his policy of expansion and carried on war with the Boers, accelerating their movement northward.

Smith, Henry John Stephen, 1826-83, British mathematician. He was a lecturer in mathematics (1850-73) and, from 1860 to 1883, Savilian professor of geometry at Oxford. He is especially noted for his work on the theory of numbers and on elliptic functions. His scientific papers were collected and edited by J. W. L. Glaisher (1894).

Smith, Hoke, 1855-1931, American political leader, b. Newton, N.C. A successful lawyer in Atlanta, he acquired the Atlanta Journal in 1887. He served (1893-96) in President Cleveland's cabinet as secretary of the interior. He later was governor of Georgia (1907-9, 1911) and U.S. Senator (1911-21). As governor he vigorously supported railroad regulation, educational reform, and direct primary legislation. He won popularity among white Southerners by his racist policies and he helped disenfranchise Georgia blacks. After his defeat (1920) for reelection, he returned to the practice of law.

Smith, Holland McTyeire, 1882-1967, American general, b. Seale, Ala. He was commissioned in the marines in 1905 and served in France in World War I. In World War II, Smith pioneered in developing amphibious tactics. He commanded troops in actions in the Gilbert, Marshall, and Mariana islands and at Iwo Jima. He commanded the Fleet Marine Force in the Pacific (1944-45) and retired (1946) from the marines as a general. He wrote Coral and Brass (1949).

Smith, Horatio or Horace, 1779-1849, and James Smith, 1775-1839, English parodists, brothers. They wrote the famous Rejected Addresses (1812) which burlesqued such contemporary poets as Wordsworth, Scott, Coleridge, and Byron. James Smith, who produced the better pieces, never wrote anything of value afterward. Horatio Smith was the author of several novels, including Brambletye House (1826), an imitation of Scott. Horace in London (1813) was a collection of their early work.

Smith, Ian Douglas, 1919-2007, Rhodesian political leader. A cattle farmer who was the son of a Scottish immigrant, he served in the Southern Rhodesia legislative assembly from 1948 until 1953, when he was elected to the federal parliament of the Central African Federation, where he served until 1961. He helped establish the white supremacist Rhodesian Front (RF), which favored independence for Southern Rhodesia from Britain. In Dec., 1962, shortly before the breakup of the federation, the RF won in Southern Rhodesia, elevating Smith to deputy prime minister and treasury minister. Becoming prime minister of Rhodesia in 1964, he brutally suppressed black nationalist activities. Refusing to agree with Britain on eventual African majority rule, Smith unilaterally declared (Nov., 1965) Rhodesian independence from Great Britain.

Despite international economic sanctions against Rhodesia, Smith consolidated white rule and declared Rhodesia a republic in 1970. His government won elections overwhelmingly in 1970 and 1974, but a fierce guerrilla war began in 1972 and intensified with neighboring Mozambique's independence. In 1977 Smith negotiated a settlement for black majority rule in which power was shared with whites, and the country was renamed Zimbabwe-Rhodesia. The settlement allowed whites to continue control of the army, economy, and legislature and also excluded the Patriotic Front (PF), which continued fighting. In 1979 the Zimbabwe-Rhodesian government was forced to negotiate with the PF and, under a new constitution (1980), Robert Mugabe, a PF leader, became prime minister of an independent Zimbabwe. Smith was relegated to leader of the opposition. His party disintegrated, and he retired in 1988, later living in self-imposed exile in South Africa.

Smith, James, c.1719-1806, political leader in the American Revolution, signer of the Declaration of Independence, b. Ireland. He settled in Pennsylvania in his youth and practiced law at York. He served in provincial assemblies and conventions and advocated independence early. He was (1776-78) a member of the Continental Congress.

Smith, James, 1775-1839: see Smith, Horatio.

Smith, Jedediah Strong, 1799-1831, American explorer, one of the greatest of the mountain men, b. near Binghamton, N.Y. Early in 1824, Smith took a party through South Pass, beginning the regular use of that route. He and a few men headed north and into present-day Montana and as far north as the Canadian boundary before going back to Great Salt Lake. In 1825 he set out from Great Salt Lake on his most famous journey. Traveling southwest with a small band of men, he crossed the Colorado River and the Mojave Desert, arriving in San Diego, Calif., then part of Mexico. In 1831, Smith set out from St. Louis with a company on the Santa Fe Trail and was killed along the Cimarron River by Comanches. His wide travels opened not only the rich fur-trapping and trading country but also trails and territory that were soon frequented by westward-bound American pioneers. His journal was edited by Maurice Sullivan (1934).

Smith, John, d. 1612, English nonconformist: see Smyth, John.

Smith, John, c.1580-1631, English colonist in America, b. Willoughby, Lincolnshire, England. A merchant's apprentice until his father's death in 1596, he thereafter lived an adventurous life, traveling, fighting in wars against the Turks in Transylvania and Hungary, and surviving a period of slavery in Turkey. His own account of these adventures has been doubted by some investigators but has been substantiated in a number of particulars. Returning to England, he invested in the new London Company and in 1606 sailed from London for America with Capt. Christopher Newport. On arrival in Virginia, Smith was named a member of the governing council of the Jamestown settlement, although not permitted to serve immediately, and began his explorations of the surrounding territory. He established trade relations with the Native Americans, drew up a map of Virginia, and finally fell into the hands of the Native American chief Powhatan. Although there is no definite proof of the famous incident of Smith's being saved from death by Powhatan's daughter, Pocahontas, it is considered quite probable that it happened. After his return (1608) to Jamestown, Smith's enemies arrested him, but he was saved from hanging by the arrival of Newport with new settlers. Smith then became president of the council and energetically resisted the company's peremptory demands that the colonists find gold. Maintaining his leadership despite opposition, he carried the colony through periods of intense suffering, hunger, and want (the "starving time"), remaining firm, tactful, and resourceful. Injured in an explosion, he returned to England in 1609. In 1614 he was sent to New England by a group of London merchants, and returned with a valuable cargo of fish and furs. He emphasized the importance of fishing and upheld the prospects for settlement in New England. On another voyage he was captured by pirates and then by the French, but eventually returned to England. He wrote A True Relation of … Virginia (1608), A Map of Virginia (1612), A Description of New England (1616), New England's Trials (1620, 2d ed. 1622), The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles (1624), An Accidence; or, The Path-Way to Experience (1626; enl. and repub. as A Sea Grammer, 1627), The True Travels, Adventures, and Observations of Captaine John Smith (1630), and Advertisements for the Unexperienced Planters of New England, or Anywhere (1631).

Smith, John, 1938-94, British politician. A barrister, he was first elected to Parliament in 1970 as a Labour party member from Scotland. He served as secretary for trade in 1970 and subsequently as Labour spokesperson on a number of economic and industrial issues, developing a reputation as a moderate. Smith was elected leader of the Labour party when Neil Kinnock resigned following the Conservative victory in the 1992 general elections; he served as party leader until his death in 1994.

Smith, Joseph, 1805-44, American Mormon leader, founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints, b. Sharon, Vt. When he was a boy his family moved to Palmyra, N.Y., where he experienced the poverty and hardships of life on a rough frontier. He had visions when he was still young and later recorded that he was first told in a vision in 1823 of the existence of secret records, but it was not until 1827 that the hiding place of the records was revealed to him. According to his account, in 1827 he unearthed golden tablets inscribed with sacred writings that he translated. Oliver Cowdery, Martin Harris, and others transcribed these records from his dictation, and the Book of Mormon was published in 1830. Further revelations led him to found a new religion after priesthood had been conferred upon him and Cowdery by an "angel." As prophet and seer he founded (1830) his church in Fayette, N.Y. (see Latter-day Saints, Church of Jesus Christ of).

The hostility of his neighbors forced him to move his headquarters to Kirtland, Ohio, where with the help of Sidney Rigdon and others he embarked on extensive business affairs. The Panic of 1837 was one of the reasons for removal farther west to Missouri. There the industrious and self-contained members of his faith again ran into difficulties with their neighbors. Smith and others were arrested but escaped, and his faithful followers were driven from Missouri.

Having obtained a favorable charter from Illinois, Smith founded the settlement of Nauvoo, which, thanks to the concerted efforts of the members of his church, was soon flourishing. Disaffection grew, however, and some of the dissident members founded a newspaper, the Expositor, in which they bitterly criticized him. He put down the opposition, thereby giving the hostile non-Mormons a pretext for attacking him. When in 1844 he announced himself as candidate for the presidency of the United States, his enemies set upon him. He and his brother Hyrum were arrested on charges of treason and conspiracy. They were lodged in the jail at Carthage, Ill., and there on June 27, 1844, they were murdered by a mob.

The revelations experienced by Smith—including one enjoining plural marriage, which later caused the Mormons much trouble—were the foundation stones of a faith that after his death grew to be one of the great religions of the United States. Because he was a highly controversial figure, the literature on him is also controversial.

Smith, Kiki, 1954-, American sculptor and printmaker, b. Nuremberg, Germany. The daughter of sculptor Tony Smith, she grew up in New Jersey and settled in New York City in 1976. Prolific and essentially self taught, she has been acclaimed as one of the most significant artists of her generation. Her audacious yet often delicate figurative works are made in many media, including bronze, aluminium, wax, paper, glass, ceramic, and fabric. Smith has been fascinated with the human body, as a functioning unit and a political object. Much of her 1980s work portrays external and internal parts of the body (feet, breasts, organs, fluids), some bearing signs of mortality and decay, some evoking the ravages of AIDS. Her later sculptures are mainly bodies in the round, often life-sized and under some duress; some are flayed, some dead. Others are frank in their concern with bodily functions, e.g. Pee Body (1992), some, e.g., her St. Genevieve series, mirror her Roman Catholic background, and others reflect her concerns with storytelling, myth, and the feminine, as in her sculptures and prints of the Red Riding Hood story or her monumental witches on pyres. Smith's more recent works frequently portray birds and other animals—often interacting with human figures—as well as flowers.

Smith, Kirby: see Smith, Edmund Kirby.

Smith, Lillian, 1897-1966, American writer and social critic, b. Jasper, Fla. She was a social worker in Georgia for several years. Her bestselling novel Strange Fruit (1944) is set in the South and depicts the tragic love of a white boy for a black girl. Smith was active in the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) but resigned when CORE supported the use of violence as a means to its ends. Her nonfiction works include Killers of the Dream (1949), Now is the Time (1955), and Memory of a Large Christmas (1962).

Smith, Logan Pearsall, 1865-1946, Anglo-American author, b. Millville, N.J. After 1888 he lived in England, studied at Oxford, and became a man of letters. His brief and exquisite essays were collected as All Trivia (1933). Other works include writings on the English language, a biography of Sir Henry Wotton (1907), On Reading Shakespeare (1933), Reperusals and Re-collections (1936), and Milton and His Modern Critics (1940).

Smith, Dame Maggie (Dame Margaret Natalie Cross), 1934-, English actress. Smith first appeared on stage in Twelfth Night (1952). With her precise, sometimes rapid-fire, articulation and her meticulous stagecraft, she is adept at both comedic and serious roles. Smith worked with the Old Vic Company and the National Theatre, giving notable performances in As You Like It, Richard II, The Rehearsal, and Private Lives. In 1989 she scored a personal triumph in London and New York in Lettice and Lovage. Among her films are Othello (1966), Travels with My Aunt (1973), A Room with a View (1985), and A Private Function (1985). She has won two Academy Awards, for The Prime of Miss Brodie (1969) and, ironically, in the role of a nominated actress on Academy Award night, in California Suite (1978). More recent performances in plays include Three Tall Women (1991) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1992); in films, The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1991) and The Secret Garden (1993). She was created a dame commander, Order of the British Empire, in 1990.

Smith, Margaret Chase, 1897-1995, U.S. senator from Maine (1949-73), b. Skowhegan, Maine. She taught school briefly and then worked (1919-28) on the Skowhegan weekly newspaper. In 1930 she married Clyde Smith, the publisher of the paper, and upon his election as a U.S. representative served in Washington as his secretary, researcher, and office manager. Active in Republican party politics, she was elected after the death of her husband in 1940 to finish his unexpired term, becoming Maine's first congresswoman. She was reelected four times. Noted for her integrity and independence, she was elected U.S. senator in 1948 and reelected in 1954, 1960, and 1966. She was unexpectedly defeated in the 1972 election by her Democratic opponent.

Smith, Michael, 1932-2000, British-born Canadian biochemist, Ph.D. Univ. of Manchester, 1956. Smith was a researcher at the Univ. of British Columbia from 1961 until his death in 2000. He shared the 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Kary Mullis for their contributions to the development of methods in DNA-based chemistry. Smith was specifically cited for developing a technique known as site-directed mutagenesis, which enables the genetic code to be reprogrammed and specific amino acids to be replaced in proteins. His work paved the way for the construction of proteins having new properties, with such potential applications as antibodies tailored to attack cancer cells and crop strains modified for more rapid growth.

Smith, Red (Walter Wellesley Smith), 1905-82, American sportswriter, b. Green Bay, Wis., grad. Notre Dame, 1927. After working on newspapers in St. Louis and Philadelphia, he began a syndicated column in the New York Herald Tribune in 1945. He joined the staff of the New York Times in 1972. Smith is regarded as one of the most literate and amusing sportswriters the craft has produced. Among his books are Out of the Red (1950), Views of Sport (1954), The Red Smith Reader (1982), To Absent Friends (1982), and the posthumous Red Smith on Baseball (2000).

Smith, Robert, 1757-1842, U.S. government official, b. Lancaster, Pa. Admitted to the bar in 1786, he practiced law in Baltimore before serving in the Maryland state senate (1793-95) and in the Baltimore city council (1798-1801). An ardent Republican, he was (1801-9) secretary of the navy under President Thomas Jefferson. Smith successfully maintained a blockading squadron in the Mediterranean during the war against the Barbary states. He also served (1809-11) as secretary of state under President James Madison but resigned at Madison's request because of disagreements over policy toward Great Britain and France.

Smith, Samuel Francis, 1808-95, American Baptist clergyman and poet, b. Boston. He is remembered as the author of the national hymn "America," written while he was a student at Andover Theological Seminary. Among his many other hymns is "The Morning Light Is Breaking."

Smith, Seba, 1792-1868, American humorist, b. Buckfield, Maine. He founded the Portland Courier in 1829 and in it began (1830) a series of humorous letters on politics under the pen name Major Jack Downing. His use of comic rustic speech and satirical comments on various political issues made him outstanding in the development of American humor. He eventually settled in New York City, where he wrote for various magazines. His works include Powhatan (1841) and Way Down East (1853).

Smith, Stevie (Margaret Florence Smith), 1902-71, English poet and novelist, b. Hull, Yorkshire. At first unnoticed as a poet, she worked in a London publisher's office until 1953. Steadily gaining respect, Smith won the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 1969. Her poetry speaks with a fiercely comic voice, underneath which lie serious questions about contemporary life. Her works include the novels Novel on Yellow Paper (1936) and Holiday (1949); her poems include A Good Time Was Had By All (1937), Not Waving But Drowning (1957), and Selected Poems (1962). Posthumous volumes include Collected Poems (1975) and Me Again: Uncollected Writings (1981).

Smith, Sydney, 1771-1845, English clergyman, writer, and wit, ordained in the Church of England in 1794. In 1798 he went as a tutor to Edinburgh, where he studied medicine, occasionally preached, and with Jeffrey and others founded (1802) the Edinburgh Review. His brilliant contributions were a strong factor in the periodical's success. Moving to London in 1803, Smith lectured on moral philosophy at the Royal Institution and became a well-known figure in literary society. His "Peter Plymley" letters (published anonymously in 1807-8) in defense of Catholic Emancipation were the first of his many appeals for religious toleration. In 1809 he moved to Yorkshire, where he had been given a living of £500 a year. There he also acted as magistrate and village doctor. He went to a parish in Somerset in 1829; in 1831 he was given a residentiary canonry at St. Paul's. Smith's religion was strong and of a practical nature. A lover of justice and truth, he was a life-long defender of the oppressed. His failure to rise higher in the church is attributed to his wide reputation as a master of wit and satire. He is placed among the premier English wits and has been compared to Swift and to Voltaire.

Smith, Theobald, 1859-1934, American pathologist, b. Albany, N.Y., M.D. Albany Medical College, 1883. He was professor of bacteriology at Columbian (now George Washington) Univ. (1886-95) and of comparative pathology at Harvard (1896-1915) and served (1915-29) as director of the department of animal pathology at Rockefeller Institute (now Rockefeller Univ.). He demonstrated the etiology of Texas cattle fever, differentiated between human and bovine tubercle bacilli, and, in his work on immunity, noted the allergylike reaction later investigated by Richet.

Smith, Thomas, Captain, American painter, active in New England from 1675 to 1690. Smith introduced baroque painting techniques into American art. He made use of chiaroscuro technique to render solid forms and reveal his psychological insight. His best-known work is his Self-Portrait (c.1690; Worcester Art Mus., Mass.).

Smith, Tony, 1912-80, American sculptor, b. South Orange, N.J., studied Art Students League, New York City (1933-37), New Bauhaus, Chicago (1937-38). Trained as a painter and architect and for a time associated with Frank Lloyd Wright, Smith had his own architectural firm during the 1940s. He turned to sculpture in the 1950s, applying architectural principles to his monumental black steel constructions. Allied with minimalism, he worked with simple geometrical modules combined on a three-dimensional grid, creating drama through simplicity and scale. His work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, N.Y.C., National Gallery, Washington, D.C., and other leading museums. The artist Kiki Smith is his daughter.

Smith, Walter Bedell, 1895-1961, U.S. general, b. Indianapolis, Ind. He enlisted (1910) in the Indiana National Guard, won a commission in the U.S. army (1918), and advanced to the rank of lieutenant general (1943). Secretary (1941-42) to the general staff, he became (1942) the U.S. secretary to the combined chiefs of staff, and as Dwight D. Eisenhower's chief of staff (1942-45) he signed the surrender terms with Italy (1943) and with Germany (1945). Smith served (1946-49) as ambassador to the USSR, director of the Central Intelligence Agency (1950-3), and undersecretary of state (1953-54). He wrote My Three Years in Moscow (1950) and Eisenhower's Six Great Decisions: Europe 1944-1945 (1956).

Smith, W. Eugene (William Eugene Smith), 1918-78, American photojournalist, b. Wichita, Kan. Smith is considered one of the principal masters of modern photojournalism. The distorted newspaper coverage of his father's suicide made him determined to seek absolute personal honesty in his own documentary work. After a short time on the staff of Newsweek, he freelanced for many leading magazines, including Life, Collier's, and Harper's Bazaar, and for the New York Times. He worked with miniature (35 mm) cameras and developed an innovative flash technique that enabled him to produce indoor photographs having the appearance of natural or lamp light. Smith's photographic record of events in the Pacific theater of World War II is ranked among the grimmest and most powerful visual indictments of war. Severely wounded in 1945, he was unable to work for two years. The first photograph he made upon recuperation (of his two children walking toward a sunlit area on a wooded path) was chosen as the final work in the "Family of Man" exhibition (Mus. of Modern Art, New York City; 1955). From 1947 to 1954 Smith worked full time for Life creating a series of major photo essays, including "Trial by Jury" (1948), "Country Doctor" (1948), "Nurse Midwife" (1951), "The Reign of Chemistry" (1953), and "A Man of Mercy" (concerning Albert Schweitzer, 1954). With a Guggenheim Fellowship he created his celebrated "Pittsburgh" essay (1956). In 1963 Smith began an intensive photographic study of Japan. While documenting the maiming effects of mercury poisoning from factory pollution on the residents of the fishing village of Minamata (1971-73), he was brutally beaten; as a result he lost his sight temporarily in 1974.

Smith, William, 1769-1839, English geologist. Through direct observation as a canal-site surveyor, Smith made a systematic study of the geological strata of England and identified the fossils peculiar to each layer. He thereby introduced the method of estimating, from the fossils present, the age of geological formations. His large (81/2 ft × 6 ft/2.6 m × 1.8 m) and accurate geological map, titled A Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales with Part of Scotland (1815), was one of the first of its kind and was followed by similar maps of English counties. Smith is widely known as the father of English stratigraphic geology and field paleontology.

Smith, Sir William, 1813-93, English editor and lexicographer. He was editor of the Quarterly Review from 1867 until his death and also edited reference works esteemed for their accuracy and comprehensiveness. These included dictionaries of Greek and Roman antiquities (1842), biography and mythology (1844-49), and geography (1854-57) and a dictionary of the Bible (1860-63).

Smith, William Robertson, 1846-94, Scottish biblical scholar and Orientalist. He studied for the ministry of the Free Church of Scotland. From 1870 he was professor of Oriental languages and Old Testament exegesis at the Free Church College, Aberdeen. Certain articles on biblical subjects that he wrote for The Encyclopaedia Britannica (9th ed.) roused a storm in his church, and in 1881 he was removed from his professorship. This cause célèbre was an important factor in the modernizing of Scottish Presbyterian theology. He was soon made an editor of The Encyclopaedia Britannica and in 1887 became editor in chief. He was professor of Arabic at Cambridge (from 1883) and chief librarian there (1886). Among his works are The Old Testament in the Jewish Church (1881), The Prophets of Israel (1882), and The Religion of the Semites (1889).

Smith, Sir William Sidney, 1764-1840, British admiral. He was a distinguished commander in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars and is especially remembered for his defense of Acre against Napoleon in 1799.

(born Oct. 17, 1803, Dromoland, County Clare, Ire.—died June 18, 1864, Bangor, Caernarvonshire, Wales) Irish political insurgent. He served in the British House of Commons (1828–48) and initially supported the Anglo-Irish legislative union (see Act of Union). In 1843 he joined the anti-union Repeal Association, and in 1846 he broke with Daniel O'Connell to lead the radical Young Ireland movement. In 1848 he supported violent revolution and led an abortive insurrection in County Tipperary. Convicted of high treason, he received a death sentence that was commuted to exile in Tasmania. He was released in 1854 and pardoned in 1856.

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(born March 23, 1769, Churchill, Oxfordshire, Eng.—died Aug. 28, 1839, Northampton, Northamptonshire) English engineer and geologist, known as the founder of the science of stratigraphy. The son of a blacksmith, he was largely self-educated. He produced the first geologic map of England and Wales (1815), setting the style for modern geologic maps, and subsequently a series of geologic maps of the English counties. He introduced many techniques still used, including the use of fossils for the dating of layers. Current geologic maps of England differ from his primarily in detail, and many of the colourful names he applied to the strata are also used today.

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(born Dec. 20, 1918, Wichita, Kan., U.S.—died Oct. 15, 1978, Tucson, Ariz.) U.S. photojournalist. He worked as a photographer for local papers then went to New York City and worked for several magazines. In 1943–44, as a war correspondent for Life magazine, he covered many of the important battles of the Pacific theatre. He produced a number of photoessays for Life, such as Spanish Village (1951), a study of villagers' daily struggle to draw life from exhausted soil. His most famous picture, The Walk to Paradise Garden (1947), showing his own children entering a forest clearing, concluded the landmark photographic exhibition The Family of Man.

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(born Dec. 20, 1918, Wichita, Kan., U.S.—died Oct. 15, 1978, Tucson, Ariz.) U.S. photojournalist. He worked as a photographer for local papers then went to New York City and worked for several magazines. In 1943–44, as a war correspondent for Life magazine, he covered many of the important battles of the Pacific theatre. He produced a number of photoessays for Life, such as Spanish Village (1951), a study of villagers' daily struggle to draw life from exhausted soil. His most famous picture, The Walk to Paradise Garden (1947), showing his own children entering a forest clearing, concluded the landmark photographic exhibition The Family of Man.

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(born July 31, 1859, Albany, N.Y., U.S.—died Dec. 10, 1934, New York, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. microbiologist and pathologist. He received his M.D. from Cornell University. He discovered that injected heat-killed cultures of the causative microorganisms can immunize animals against disease. His discovery that Texas cattle fever is caused by a parasite transmitted by ticks—the first definite proof of arthropods' role in spreading disease—helped the scientific community accept mosquitoes' role in malaria and yellow fever. Smith was the first to differentiate the bacteria that cause tuberculosis in cattle and in humans, and he was one of the first to notice anaphylaxis. He also improved laboratory production of vaccines.

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(born May 17, 1805, The Riding, Northumberland, Eng.—died March 16, 1864, Brighton, Sussex) English novelist. Passionately addicted to riding to hounds from his youth, Surtees devoted nearly all his writings to horses and riding. In 1831 he launched New Sporting Magazine. His famous comic character Mr. Jorrocks, a blunt Cockney grocer entirely given over to fox hunting, appeared in Jorrocks's Jaunts and Jollities (1838), Handley Cross (1843), and Hillingdon Hall (1845). Among his other novels, which also portray the boredom, ill manners, discomfort, and coarse food of English provincial life, are Hawbuck Grange (1847) and Mr. Facey Romford's Hounds (1865).

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orig. Florence Margaret Smith

(born Sept. 20, 1902, Hull, Yorkshire, Eng.—died March 7, 1971, London) British poet. She lived most of her life with an aunt in a London suburb and worked many years as a secretary. Her poetry, an unsentimental combination of the ludicrous and the pathetic, expresses an original and visionary personality. In the 1960s her poetry readings became popular, and she made radio broadcasts and recordings. Her Collected Poems (1975) is illustrated with her James Thurber-like sketches; it includes her first book, A Good Time Was Had by All (1937), and Not Waving but Drowning (1957), whose h1 poem appears in many anthologies.

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(born March 23, 1769, Churchill, Oxfordshire, Eng.—died Aug. 28, 1839, Northampton, Northamptonshire) English engineer and geologist, known as the founder of the science of stratigraphy. The son of a blacksmith, he was largely self-educated. He produced the first geologic map of England and Wales (1815), setting the style for modern geologic maps, and subsequently a series of geologic maps of the English counties. He introduced many techniques still used, including the use of fossils for the dating of layers. Current geologic maps of England differ from his primarily in detail, and many of the colourful names he applied to the strata are also used today.

Learn more about Smith, William with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born July 31, 1859, Albany, N.Y., U.S.—died Dec. 10, 1934, New York, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. microbiologist and pathologist. He received his M.D. from Cornell University. He discovered that injected heat-killed cultures of the causative microorganisms can immunize animals against disease. His discovery that Texas cattle fever is caused by a parasite transmitted by ticks—the first definite proof of arthropods' role in spreading disease—helped the scientific community accept mosquitoes' role in malaria and yellow fever. Smith was the first to differentiate the bacteria that cause tuberculosis in cattle and in humans, and he was one of the first to notice anaphylaxis. He also improved laboratory production of vaccines.

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orig. Florence Margaret Smith

(born Sept. 20, 1902, Hull, Yorkshire, Eng.—died March 7, 1971, London) British poet. She lived most of her life with an aunt in a London suburb and worked many years as a secretary. Her poetry, an unsentimental combination of the ludicrous and the pathetic, expresses an original and visionary personality. In the 1960s her poetry readings became popular, and she made radio broadcasts and recordings. Her Collected Poems (1975) is illustrated with her James Thurber-like sketches; it includes her first book, A Good Time Was Had by All (1937), and Not Waving but Drowning (1957), whose h1 poem appears in many anthologies.

Learn more about Smith, Stevie with a free trial on Britannica.com.

orig. Walter Wellesley Smith

(born Sept. 25, 1905, Green Bay, Wis., U.S.—died Jan. 15, 1982, Stamford, Conn.) U.S. sports columnist. Smith worked for various newspapers before his column, “Views of Sport,” began appearing in the New York Herald Tribune in 1945; it was syndicated soon thereafter. He joined The New York Times in 1971. His writing, mostly about major spectator sports, shunned jargon and displayed literary craftsmanship, wry humour, and deep knowledge. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1976. His columns were collected in five books, including Out of the Red (1950) and Strawberries in the Wintertime (1974).

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orig. Margaret Madeline Chase

(born Dec. 14, 1897, Skowhegan, Maine, U.S.—died May 29, 1995, Skowhegan) U.S. politician. She served as secretary to her husband, Clyde Smith, after he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican in 1936. When he suffered a heart attack in 1940, he urged voters to elect her to the office. She became the first woman to win election to both the House (1940–49) and the Senate (1949–73). Though a staunch anticommunist, she was the first Republican senator to condemn the tactics of Joseph McCarthy, delivering a memorable “Declaration of Conscience” speech on the Senate floor in 1950. Her opinion that Pres. John F. Kennedy should use nuclear weapons against the Soviet Union prompted Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to dub her “the devil in disguise of a woman.” She retired from politics after her defeat in 1972. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1989.

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(born Dec. 23, 1805, Sharon, Vt., U.S.—died June 27, 1844, Carthage, Ill.) Founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon church). He began experiencing visions as a teenager in Palmyra, N.Y. In 1827 he claimed that an angel had directed him to buried golden plates containing God's revelation; these he translated into the Book of Mormon (1830). He led converts to Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois, where he established the town of Nauvoo (1839), which soon became the state's largest town. Imprisoned for treason after his efforts to silence Mormon dissenters led to mob violence, he was murdered by a lynch mob that stormed the jail where he was held. His work was continued by Brigham Young.

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(baptized Jan. 6, 1580, Willoughby, Lincolnshire, Eng.—died June 21, 1631, London) English explorer. After a period as a military adventurer, he joined an English group preparing to establish a colony in North America. The Virginia Company of London sailed three ships to Chesapeake Bay, arriving in 1607 to establish the first permanent English settlement in North America at Jamestown, of which Smith later became the leader. On a river voyage to explore the surrounding region, he was captured by Indians of the Powhatan empire; according to his own account, Smith was saved from death by Pocahontas, daughter of the Indian chief. While president of the Jamestown Colony, Smith oversaw its expansion. An injury forced his return to England in 1609. Eager for further exploration, he made contact with the Plymouth Company and sailed in 1614 to the area he named New England. He also mapped its coast and wrote descriptions of Virginia and New England that encouraged others to colonize the New World.

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(born April 8, 1919, Selukwe, Rhodesia—died Nov. 20, 2007, Cape Town, S.Af.) First native-born prime minister of the British colony of Southern Rhodesia (1964–65). An ardent advocate of white rule, in 1965 he declared Rhodesia's independence and withdrew it from the Commonwealth. He faced guerrilla attacks from Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo through most of the 1970s. In 1977 he was finally compelled to negotiate a transfer of power to the black majority, a process completed two years later. He continued to serve in Parliament until 1987.

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(born Sept. 2, 1855, Newton, N.C., U.S.—died Nov. 27, 1931, Atlanta, Ga.) U.S. politician. He was publisher of the Atlanta Journal (1887–1900), which he used to promote progressive measures (except civil rights for African Americans). He served as U.S. secretary of the interior (1893–96). As governor of Georgia (1907–09, 1911), he improved education, transportation, and prison conditions. Elected to the U.S. Senate (1911–21), he supported progressive legislation but opposed U.S. participation in the League of Nations.

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(born Aug. 23, 1931, New York, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. microbiologist. He received his M.D. from Johns Hopkins University. While studying the mechanism whereby the bacterium Haemophilus influenzae takes up DNA from a particular bacteriophage, Smith, Werner Arber, and Daniel Nathans discovered the first of what came to be called type II restriction enzymes. Whereas previously studied restriction enzymes cut DNA at unpredictable points, the type II enzymes' predictability allowed the scientists to cut DNA at a particular point. The enzymes have become valuable tools in the study of DNA structure and in recombinant DNA technology. The three shared a 1978 Nobel Prize.

Learn more about Smith, Hamilton O(thanel) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born March 6, 1797, Utica, N.Y., U.S.—died Dec. 28, 1874, New York, N.Y.) U.S. reformer and philanthropist. Born into a wealthy family, he became active in the temperance movement (1828) and built one of the first U.S. temperance hotels at Peterboro, N.Y. From 1835 he was an active abolitionist, and he made his hotel a stop on the Underground Railroad. He helped form the Liberty Party and was its unsuccessful presidential candidate in 1848 and 1852. He paid the legal expenses of many slaves arrested under the Fugitive Slave Acts. He gave a farm to his friend John Brown and financed some of Brown's activities.

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(born May 15, 1969, Pensacola, Fla., U.S.) U.S. football player. He set 58 school football records at the University of Florida, and as a running back for the Dallas Cowboys of the NFL (1990–2002), he helped his team win three Super Bowl games. In 1995 he set the all-time NFL record for touchdowns in a single season (25), and he holds the record for most career rushing touchdowns (164). In 2002 he surpassed Walter Payton to become the NFL's all-time leading rusher. He played two seasons with the Arizona Cardinals and retired in 2004 with 18,355 career rushing yards.

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(born March 9, 1906, Decatur, Ind., U.S.—died May 23, 1965, Albany, N.Y.) U.S. sculptor. He learned to work with metal while employed at an automobile plant. In 1926 he went to New York City and took various jobs while studying painting at the Art Students League. His sculptures grew out of his abstract paintings, to which he attached so many bits of wood, metal, and found objects that they became virtual bases for sculptural superstructures. He became the first U.S. artist to make welded metal sculpture. In 1940 he moved to Bolton Landing, N.Y., and there made his large yet seemingly weightless metal sculptures until his death in a car crash. His abstract biomorphic and geometric forms are remarkable for their erratic inventiveness, stylistic diversity, and high aesthetic quality. His work greatly influenced Minimalist sculpture in the 1960s.

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orig. Margaret Natalie Smith

(born Dec. 28, 1934, Ilford, Essex, Eng.) British actress. She first gained recognition on Broadway in New Faces of 1956, and, after winning praise for her roles in The Rehearsal (1961) and Mary, Mary (1963), she joined Britain's National Theatre Company, where she starred opposite Laurence Olivier in Othello (1964; film, 1965). Her later films include The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969, Academy Award), Travels with My Aunt (1972), California Suite (1978, Academy Award), and The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1987). Known for her nervous intensity, acid wit, and flawless timing, she has many great stage performances to her credit, notably in The Way of the World (1985) and Lettice and Lovage (1990, Tony Award).

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orig. Elizabeth Smith

(born April 15, 1898?, Chattanooga, Tenn., U.S.—died Sept. 26, 1937, Clarksdale, Miss.) U.S. blues and jazz singer. Smith sang popular songs as well as blues on the minstrel and vaudeville stage. She began recording in 1923 and appeared in the film St. Louis Blues (1929). Her interpretations represent the fully realized transition of the rural folk tradition of the blues to its urbane structure and expressiveness. A bold, supremely confident artist with a powerful voice and precise diction, she became known as “Empress of the Blues.” Smith was the most successful African American entertainer of her time. She died from injuries sustained in a car crash, and it was said that, had she been white, she would have received earlier medical treatment and her life might have been saved; the actual circumstances of her treatment remain obscure.

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(born Dec. 30, 1873, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died Oct. 4, 1944, New York City) U.S. politician. After working in the Fulton fish market to help support his family, he began his political career with a job from Tammany Hall (1895). In the state assembly (1903–15), he rose to speaker, then served in city political posts. As governor of New York (1919–20, 1923–28) he worked for improved housing, child welfare, and efficient government. In 1928 he won the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party, the first Roman Catholic to do so, but he was easily defeated by Herbert Hoover. He later opposed the New Deal programs of Franklin D. Roosevelt and supported Republican presidential candidates for president in 1936 and 1940.

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(baptized June 5, 1723, Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scot.—died July 17, 1790, Edinburgh) Scottish social philosopher and political economist. The son of a customs official, he studied at the Universities of Glasgow and Oxford. A series of public lectures in Edinburgh (from 1748) led to a lifelong friendship with David Hume and to Smith's appointment to the Glasgow faculty in 1751. After publishing The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), he became the tutor of the future Duke of Buccleuch (1763–66); with him he traveled to France, where Smith consorted with other eminent thinkers. In 1776, after nine years of work, Smith published An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, the first comprehensive system of political economy. In it he argued in favour of an economic system based on individual self-interest that would be led, as if by an “invisible hand,” to achieve the greatest good for all, and posited the division of labour as the chief factor in economic growth. A reaction to the system of mercantilism then current, it stands as the beginning of classical economics. The Wealth of Nations in time won him an enormous reputation and would become virtually the most influential work on economics ever published. Though often regarded as the bible of capitalism, it is harshly critical of the shortcomings of unrestrained free enterprise and monopoly. In 1777 Smith was appointed commissioner of customs for Scotland, and in 1787 rector of the University of Glasgow.

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Private liberal arts college for women in Northampton, Mass. It was founded in 1871 through the bequest of Sophia Smith (1796–1870). Bachelor's degrees are granted in most major academic fields, and master's degrees are granted in biology, dance, education, music, religion, social work, and theatre. Smith's school of social work also grants doctoral degrees. The college belongs to a five-college cooperative with Amherst, Hampshire, and Mount Holyoke colleges and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

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(born April 30, 1901, Kharkov, Ukraine, Russian Empire—died July 8, 1985, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.) Russian-U.S. economist and statistician. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1922 and joined the National Bureau of Economic Research in 1927; he later taught at the University of Pennsylvania (1930–54), Johns Hopkins University (1954–60), and Harvard University (1960–71). His work emphasized the complexity of underlying data in the construction of economic models, stressing the need for information on population structure, technology, labour quality, government structure, trade, and markets. He also described the existence of cyclical variations in growth rates (now called “Kuznets cycles”) and their links with underlying factors such as population. In 1971 he received the Nobel Prize.

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(born May 17, 1805, The Riding, Northumberland, Eng.—died March 16, 1864, Brighton, Sussex) English novelist. Passionately addicted to riding to hounds from his youth, Surtees devoted nearly all his writings to horses and riding. In 1831 he launched New Sporting Magazine. His famous comic character Mr. Jorrocks, a blunt Cockney grocer entirely given over to fox hunting, appeared in Jorrocks's Jaunts and Jollities (1838), Handley Cross (1843), and Hillingdon Hall (1845). Among his other novels, which also portray the boredom, ill manners, discomfort, and coarse food of English provincial life, are Hawbuck Grange (1847) and Mr. Facey Romford's Hounds (1865).

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orig. Walter Wellesley Smith

(born Sept. 25, 1905, Green Bay, Wis., U.S.—died Jan. 15, 1982, Stamford, Conn.) U.S. sports columnist. Smith worked for various newspapers before his column, “Views of Sport,” began appearing in the New York Herald Tribune in 1945; it was syndicated soon thereafter. He joined The New York Times in 1971. His writing, mostly about major spectator sports, shunned jargon and displayed literary craftsmanship, wry humour, and deep knowledge. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1976. His columns were collected in five books, including Out of the Red (1950) and Strawberries in the Wintertime (1974).

Learn more about Smith, Red with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Oct. 17, 1803, Dromoland, County Clare, Ire.—died June 18, 1864, Bangor, Caernarvonshire, Wales) Irish political insurgent. He served in the British House of Commons (1828–48) and initially supported the Anglo-Irish legislative union (see Act of Union). In 1843 he joined the anti-union Repeal Association, and in 1846 he broke with Daniel O'Connell to lead the radical Young Ireland movement. In 1848 he supported violent revolution and led an abortive insurrection in County Tipperary. Convicted of high treason, he received a death sentence that was commuted to exile in Tasmania. He was released in 1854 and pardoned in 1856.

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orig. Margaret Madeline Chase

(born Dec. 14, 1897, Skowhegan, Maine, U.S.—died May 29, 1995, Skowhegan) U.S. politician. She served as secretary to her husband, Clyde Smith, after he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican in 1936. When he suffered a heart attack in 1940, he urged voters to elect her to the office. She became the first woman to win election to both the House (1940–49) and the Senate (1949–73). Though a staunch anticommunist, she was the first Republican senator to condemn the tactics of Joseph McCarthy, delivering a memorable “Declaration of Conscience” speech on the Senate floor in 1950. Her opinion that Pres. John F. Kennedy should use nuclear weapons against the Soviet Union prompted Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to dub her “the devil in disguise of a woman.” She retired from politics after her defeat in 1972. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1989.

Learn more about Smith, Margaret Chase with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born April 30, 1901, Kharkov, Ukraine, Russian Empire—died July 8, 1985, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.) Russian-U.S. economist and statistician. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1922 and joined the National Bureau of Economic Research in 1927; he later taught at the University of Pennsylvania (1930–54), Johns Hopkins University (1954–60), and Harvard University (1960–71). His work emphasized the complexity of underlying data in the construction of economic models, stressing the need for information on population structure, technology, labour quality, government structure, trade, and markets. He also described the existence of cyclical variations in growth rates (now called “Kuznets cycles”) and their links with underlying factors such as population. In 1971 he received the Nobel Prize.

Learn more about Kuznets, Simon (Smith) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Dec. 23, 1805, Sharon, Vt., U.S.—died June 27, 1844, Carthage, Ill.) Founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon church). He began experiencing visions as a teenager in Palmyra, N.Y. In 1827 he claimed that an angel had directed him to buried golden plates containing God's revelation; these he translated into the Book of Mormon (1830). He led converts to Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois, where he established the town of Nauvoo (1839), which soon became the state's largest town. Imprisoned for treason after his efforts to silence Mormon dissenters led to mob violence, he was murdered by a lynch mob that stormed the jail where he was held. His work was continued by Brigham Young.

Learn more about Smith, Joseph with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(baptized Jan. 6, 1580, Willoughby, Lincolnshire, Eng.—died June 21, 1631, London) English explorer. After a period as a military adventurer, he joined an English group preparing to establish a colony in North America. The Virginia Company of London sailed three ships to Chesapeake Bay, arriving in 1607 to establish the first permanent English settlement in North America at Jamestown, of which Smith later became the leader. On a river voyage to explore the surrounding region, he was captured by Indians of the Powhatan empire; according to his own account, Smith was saved from death by Pocahontas, daughter of the Indian chief. While president of the Jamestown Colony, Smith oversaw its expansion. An injury forced his return to England in 1609. Eager for further exploration, he made contact with the Plymouth Company and sailed in 1614 to the area he named New England. He also mapped its coast and wrote descriptions of Virginia and New England that encouraged others to colonize the New World.

Learn more about Smith, John with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born April 8, 1919, Selukwe, Rhodesia—died Nov. 20, 2007, Cape Town, S.Af.) First native-born prime minister of the British colony of Southern Rhodesia (1964–65). An ardent advocate of white rule, in 1965 he declared Rhodesia's independence and withdrew it from the Commonwealth. He faced guerrilla attacks from Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo through most of the 1970s. In 1977 he was finally compelled to negotiate a transfer of power to the black majority, a process completed two years later. He continued to serve in Parliament until 1987.

Learn more about Smith, Ian (Douglas) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Sept. 2, 1855, Newton, N.C., U.S.—died Nov. 27, 1931, Atlanta, Ga.) U.S. politician. He was publisher of the Atlanta Journal (1887–1900), which he used to promote progressive measures (except civil rights for African Americans). He served as U.S. secretary of the interior (1893–96). As governor of Georgia (1907–09, 1911), he improved education, transportation, and prison conditions. Elected to the U.S. Senate (1911–21), he supported progressive legislation but opposed U.S. participation in the League of Nations.

Learn more about Smith, Hoke with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Aug. 23, 1931, New York, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. microbiologist. He received his M.D. from Johns Hopkins University. While studying the mechanism whereby the bacterium Haemophilus influenzae takes up DNA from a particular bacteriophage, Smith, Werner Arber, and Daniel Nathans discovered the first of what came to be called type II restriction enzymes. Whereas previously studied restriction enzymes cut DNA at unpredictable points, the type II enzymes' predictability allowed the scientists to cut DNA at a particular point. The enzymes have become valuable tools in the study of DNA structure and in recombinant DNA technology. The three shared a 1978 Nobel Prize.

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(born March 6, 1797, Utica, N.Y., U.S.—died Dec. 28, 1874, New York, N.Y.) U.S. reformer and philanthropist. Born into a wealthy family, he became active in the temperance movement (1828) and built one of the first U.S. temperance hotels at Peterboro, N.Y. From 1835 he was an active abolitionist, and he made his hotel a stop on the Underground Railroad. He helped form the Liberty Party and was its unsuccessful presidential candidate in 1848 and 1852. He paid the legal expenses of many slaves arrested under the Fugitive Slave Acts. He gave a farm to his friend John Brown and financed some of Brown's activities.

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(born May 15, 1969, Pensacola, Fla., U.S.) U.S. football player. He set 58 school football records at the University of Florida, and as a running back for the Dallas Cowboys of the NFL (1990–2002), he helped his team win three Super Bowl games. In 1995 he set the all-time NFL record for touchdowns in a single season (25), and he holds the record for most career rushing touchdowns (164). In 2002 he surpassed Walter Payton to become the NFL's all-time leading rusher. He played two seasons with the Arizona Cardinals and retired in 2004 with 18,355 career rushing yards.

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(born March 29, 1799, Knowsley Park, Lancashire, Eng.—died Oct. 23, 1869, London) English statesman. Having entered Parliament as a Whig in 1820, he later joined the Conservatives and became leader of the Conservative Party (1846–68) and prime minister (1852, 1858, and 1866–68). Legislation adopted during his tenure included the removal of Jewish discrimination in Parliament membership, the transfer of India's administration from the East India Company to the crown, and the Reform Bill of 1867. He is remembered as one of England's greatest parliamentary orators.

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(born March 29, 1799, Knowsley Park, Lancashire, Eng.—died Oct. 23, 1869, London) English statesman. Having entered Parliament as a Whig in 1820, he later joined the Conservatives and became leader of the Conservative Party (1846–68) and prime minister (1852, 1858, and 1866–68). Legislation adopted during his tenure included the removal of Jewish discrimination in Parliament membership, the transfer of India's administration from the East India Company to the crown, and the Reform Bill of 1867. He is remembered as one of England's greatest parliamentary orators.

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(born March 9, 1906, Decatur, Ind., U.S.—died May 23, 1965, Albany, N.Y.) U.S. sculptor. He learned to work with metal while employed at an automobile plant. In 1926 he went to New York City and took various jobs while studying painting at the Art Students League. His sculptures grew out of his abstract paintings, to which he attached so many bits of wood, metal, and found objects that they became virtual bases for sculptural superstructures. He became the first U.S. artist to make welded metal sculpture. In 1940 he moved to Bolton Landing, N.Y., and there made his large yet seemingly weightless metal sculptures until his death in a car crash. His abstract biomorphic and geometric forms are remarkable for their erratic inventiveness, stylistic diversity, and high aesthetic quality. His work greatly influenced Minimalist sculpture in the 1960s.

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orig. Margaret Natalie Smith

(born Dec. 28, 1934, Ilford, Essex, Eng.) British actress. She first gained recognition on Broadway in New Faces of 1956, and, after winning praise for her roles in The Rehearsal (1961) and Mary, Mary (1963), she joined Britain's National Theatre Company, where she starred opposite Laurence Olivier in Othello (1964; film, 1965). Her later films include The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969, Academy Award), Travels with My Aunt (1972), California Suite (1978, Academy Award), and The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1987). Known for her nervous intensity, acid wit, and flawless timing, she has many great stage performances to her credit, notably in The Way of the World (1985) and Lettice and Lovage (1990, Tony Award).

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orig. Elizabeth Smith

(born April 15, 1898?, Chattanooga, Tenn., U.S.—died Sept. 26, 1937, Clarksdale, Miss.) U.S. blues and jazz singer. Smith sang popular songs as well as blues on the minstrel and vaudeville stage. She began recording in 1923 and appeared in the film St. Louis Blues (1929). Her interpretations represent the fully realized transition of the rural folk tradition of the blues to its urbane structure and expressiveness. A bold, supremely confident artist with a powerful voice and precise diction, she became known as “Empress of the Blues.” Smith was the most successful African American entertainer of her time. She died from injuries sustained in a car crash, and it was said that, had she been white, she would have received earlier medical treatment and her life might have been saved; the actual circumstances of her treatment remain obscure.

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(born Dec. 30, 1873, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died Oct. 4, 1944, New York City) U.S. politician. After working in the Fulton fish market to help support his family, he began his political career with a job from Tammany Hall (1895). In the state assembly (1903–15), he rose to speaker, then served in city political posts. As governor of New York (1919–20, 1923–28) he worked for improved housing, child welfare, and efficient government. In 1928 he won the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party, the first Roman Catholic to do so, but he was easily defeated by Herbert Hoover. He later opposed the New Deal programs of Franklin D. Roosevelt and supported Republican presidential candidates for president in 1936 and 1940.

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(baptized June 5, 1723, Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scot.—died July 17, 1790, Edinburgh) Scottish social philosopher and political economist. The son of a customs official, he studied at the Universities of Glasgow and Oxford. A series of public lectures in Edinburgh (from 1748) led to a lifelong friendship with David Hume and to Smith's appointment to the Glasgow faculty in 1751. After publishing The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), he became the tutor of the future Duke of Buccleuch (1763–66); with him he traveled to France, where Smith consorted with other eminent thinkers. In 1776, after nine years of work, Smith published An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, the first comprehensive system of political economy. In it he argued in favour of an economic system based on individual self-interest that would be led, as if by an “invisible hand,” to achieve the greatest good for all, and posited the division of labour as the chief factor in economic growth. A reaction to the system of mercantilism then current, it stands as the beginning of classical economics. The Wealth of Nations in time won him an enormous reputation and would become virtually the most influential work on economics ever published. Though often regarded as the bible of capitalism, it is harshly critical of the shortcomings of unrestrained free enterprise and monopoly. In 1777 Smith was appointed commissioner of customs for Scotland, and in 1787 rector of the University of Glasgow.

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Smith may refer to:

• Smith (metalwork), a person involved in the shaping of metal objects
• Smith (surname), an English name
• People with the surname Smith
• Smith (TV series) (2006), an American television series
• Smith (band), a 1960s American rock band
• Smith grind, a skateboarding trick
• Smith (lunar crater), a lunar impact crater on the far side of the moon, named after American astronaut Mike Smith
• Smith (gotra), a Jat clan, part of the Jat clan system in India
• Smith antigen, target for antibodies produced in a subset of cases of systemic lupus erythematosus, named after Stephanie Smith, first documented patient to exhibit such autoimmunity
• Smith machine, weight training equipment

Places

• Fort Smith, several places (cities and military fortifications)
• Smith Island, Nunavut
• Smith Islands National Park in Queensland, Australia
• Mount Smith, a mountain in Antarctica
• Mount Smith (New Zealand), a mountain in Canterbury, New Zealand
• Smith Volcano, in the Philippines
• Smith, Buenos Aires, a settlement in Carlos Casares Partido, Argentina
• Smith (Martian crater), a crater on Mars
• Smith River, several rivers and communities in Canada and the United States

In the United States

• Smith County, several counties
• Smith, Indiana, unincorporated town
• Smith Center, Kansas
• Smith Island, Maryland
• Smith Mills, Massachusetts
• Smith Township, Pennsylvania
• Smith Valley, Nevada
• Smith Village, Oklahoma

Organizations

• Smith Automobile Company, an early automobile manufacturer in Topeka, Kansas
• The Smith Family, an Australian charity for disadvantaged children
• Smith International, a Fortune 500 company making various products for the oil industry
• Smith College, a women's liberal arts college in Massachusetts, USA
• The Smith's Snackfood Company
• Smith Museum of Stained Glass Windows, an exhibition at Chicago's Navy Pier
• Smith & Wesson, a firearms manufacturer
• W H Smith, a high-street chic bookshop chain in the UK
• Smith Electric Vehicles.

Fiction

• Agent Smith, a fictional antagonist from The Matrix series of films
• "Smith of Wootton Major", a short story by J. R. R. Tolkien
• Smith & Smith, a Canadian TV series
• Smith (Warwick Deeping), a 1932 novel by Warwick Deeping
• Smith (Leon Garfield), a 1967 novel by Leon Garfield
• John "Hannibal" Smith, a fictional character in the 1980s action/adventure television series The A-Team

See also

• Psmith (the 'P' is silent), a character created by P. G. Wodehouse
• Smiths (disambiguation)
• Smithfield (disambiguation)
• Smithland (disambiguation)
• Smithville (disambiguation)
• Smyth (surname page)