Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech
Special Collections and University Archives, University Libraries (0434)John M. Jackson
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The collection is open to research.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: [identification of item], [box], [folder], Frank Smith Research Paper, Ms1990-006, Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va.
The Frank Smith Research Paper was donated to Special Collections and University Archives in 1990.
The processing and description of the Frank Smith Research Paper was completed in 2022.
Frank Seeley Smith Jr., son of Frank and Edythe Edith Russell Seymour Smith, was born in East Norwalk (Fairfield County), Connecticut on September 29, 1912. The 1920 and 1930 censuses show the Smith family living in Yonkers, New York. In 1935, Frank Smith married Jean Adele Hammond (1912-2004); the couple had at least two children. By 1940, the Smiths were living in Richmond, Virginia, where Frank Smith was employed as a sales clerk for a metals manufacturer. According to his obituary, Smith founded the Louisville chapter of Big Brothers and Sisters and served as a Scouts BSA scoutmaster; he was a member of the Kiwanis Club, Katy Railroad Historical Society (Fort Scott, Kansas), Missouri-Pacific Historical Society, Bluegrass Railroad Museum (Versailles, Kentucky), and the Kentucky Rail Museum. A railroad artist, Smith wrote and illustrated A Katy Look: Over the Shoulder of Frank Smith , devoted to the Missouri-Kansas-Texas (aka "Katy") Railroad. Smith also served for a time as a writer for West Texas Business Magazine . Frank and Jean Hammond Smith divorced in 1979; the following year, he married Claire Justine. Frank S. Smith died in Louisville, Kentucky on April 15, 1998.
This collection contains a typescript photocopy of "The Bridge at Tyrone: a Review of Its Construction," written by railroad artist Frank Smith in 1989. Built in 1889, the bridge at Tyrone--also known as Young's High Bridge and Jo Blackburn Bridge--spans the Kentucky River and served the Louisville Southern Railroad, then later the Southern Railway, and eventually Norfolk Southern, until the line was abandoned in 1985. Smith's essay provides background on the bridge, its construction, history, and legacy, together with the sources that Smith used in compiling information. Accompanying the text are photocopies of images and source material.
The guide to the Frank Smith Research Paper by Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, is licensed under a CC0 ( https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/ ).