Scope and Contents

This collection consists of 2,931 slides taken by Lawrence V. Smith of the following aircraft and spacecraft: Bell AH-1W (AH-1T+) SuperCobra; Bell UH-1 Iroquois (Huey); Sikorsky (S-70B) SH-60B Seahawk; Sikorsky (S-80) CH-53E Super; North American F-100 Super Sabre; Lockheed P-3 Orion; Grumman F-14 Tomcat; General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon; Lockheed C-130 Hercules; Skylab, Skylab 2; and (Space Shuttle) Endeavour (OV-15). The collection also contains slides of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia; the National Air and Space Museum; and general military shots of parachutists, military vehicles, marine landings and military air stations.

Biographical / Historical

Lawrence V. Smith (1931-2010) was an Emmy Award-winning photographer. He received a bachlelor's degree in Education, majoring in Physical Science from Illinois State University and then began work on a Doctorate in biochemistry at Iowa State College. After a semester at Iowa State, Smith dropped out and accepted a position as a chemist at the US Rubber Company in Joliet, Illinois. Having lost his student exemption, Smith was drafted in the Army where he was an electronics instructor for the Nike guided missile system. During the mid-1950s he started to become involved in motion picture when he filmed an air show crash and sold the footage to the Today Show. Highlights of Smith's career include: his work as a CBS cameraman in Cuba, where he traveled with Castro during the Cuban Revolution, earning him his first Emmy; his work as a cameraman/correspondent for ABC-TV during the early states of the Vietnam War in 1965, garnering him his second Emmy; and his work as director of photography for Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom where he won two more Emmy award certificates. Smith worked under contract for the US Information Agency (USIA) specializing in helicopter photography of Apollo missions 11 through 16 and later covered aspects of the Skylab Program. Smith later had several independent film companies in Jacksonville Florida, where he expanded into video and began his own image library, specializing in transportation photography.