Collection: Paoli Ashe Smith papers | Special Collections & Archives

Scope and Contents note

This collection consists mainly of personal correspondence from Smith to his mother during World War I, letters received from several of his cousins, financial and legal papers, and photographs. It also contains miscellaneous items related to Smith’s father, legal papers of his mother, a letter written to Mrs. Smith from her sister Netta Tutwiler, and a small quantity of financial and legal papers of a cousin, Margaret Roberts Ellington. The papers are fragmentary, with a gap spanning a period of almost thirty-five years, from the 1930s through 1963. The strength of the collection lies in the World War I material, particularly in Paoli Smith's correspondence, which offers a wartime perspective on his own life, the lives of non-combatants, and the effects of war upon the countryside.

Dates

1882-1970

Biographical/Historical note

Smith was born in Greensboro, Alabama, in 1894, the only child of Paoli Ashe Smith and Gessner Harrison Tutwiler Smith. He graduated from the University of Alabama in 1911, worked as a journalist for the Birmingham Ledger, 1911-15, leaving that job for the insurance business. From 1917 to 1919 he served as an intelligence officer in the American Expeditionary Force in Europe. Following the war he joined the Sparrow Advertising Agency in Birmingham, where he worked from 1921 to 1962, serving as president for much of that period. He died in Birmingham on 3 March 1972.

Extent

0.4 Linear Feet (106 items)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

This collection consists mainly of personal correspondence from this jorunalist and Greensboro, Alabama, native to his mother during World War I, letters received from several of his cousins, financial and legal papers, and photographs. It also contains materials relating to other members of his family.