Guide to the Dick Smith collection SBHC Mss 56
Preliminary arrangement and description by D. Tambo; latest revision, D. Tambo, March 15, 2017.
University of California, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara 93106-9010
special@library.ucsb.edu
2017 March 15
Title: Dick Smith collection
Identifier/Call Number: SBHC Mss 56
Contributing Institution:
UC Santa Barbara Library, Department of Special Research Collections
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
.3 linear feet
(1 flat oversize box)
Creator:
Smith, Dick
Date (inclusive): 1963-1976
Physical Location: Special Research Collections, UC Santa Barbara Library
The collection is open for research.
Copyright has not been assigned to the Department of Special Research Collections, UCSB. All requests for permission to publish
or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Research Collections. Permission for publication
is given on behalf of the Department of Special Research Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended
to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which also must be obtained.
[Identification of Item], Dick Smith collection, SBHC Mss 56. Department of Special Research Collections, UC Santa Barbara
Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.
Gift of Mrs. Dick [Olive] Smith, 1977, and undetermined.
Richard J. [Dick] Smith was born in Minnesota on Aug. 29, 1920. He came to Santa Barbara County in 1948, got a job at the
Santa Barbara News-Press as Promotion Manager and continued to work there part-time, spending the rest of his time hiking the backcountry. Over the
years he came to be known as Santa Barbara County's foremost backwoodsman and a local wilderness area bears his name.
In 1964 Smith co-authored
California Condor: Vanishing American with Robert O. Easton. A posthumous work,
Condor Journal: The History, Mythology, and Reality of the California Condor, was edited by his wife, Olive Kingston Smith, in 1978.
Dick Smith died on Feb. 2, 1977.
The collection contains more than 300 color slides, mainly of the 1969 Santa Barbara Oil Spill and its aftermath. Included
are images of oil rigs, shoreline, beaches, oil soaked birds and animals, clean-up efforts, and some aerialviews. There are
duplicates of some images. Most were taken January-Feb. 1969, but some are as early as 1963 (mainly nature images) and others
as late as 1976 (mainly oil spill aftermath). Some slides have a Dick Smith stamp.
The slides are mainly Ektachrome, most with 'H" batch numbers. Some are labelled as DS and have other descriptions, so probably
all in the same batch are by him, even if not so labelled. 'H' batches in general are probably by him, especially if in the
same date ranges and with similar descriptions.
Slides have been arranged by date, batch number, then by slide number within the batch. Unidentified slides, without batch
numbers, may be duplicates and are filed after the others.
Easton [Robert O.] Collection. Box 2, Folder 9 contains Sisquoc Ranch Photographic Essay, with photos probably by Dick Smith,
ca. 1966. (SBHC Mss 6).
GOO Collection. About 200 prints, many oversize, some matted, most by Dick Smith, relating to the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill.
(SBHC Mss 10).
SBNH Museum Library. The library's webpage lists a Dick Smith Collection. Check with the library staff there for further details.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Oil spills -- California -- Santa Barbara Channel -- Photographs
Oil spills and wildlife -- California -- Santa Barbara Channel -- Photographs
Marine pollution -- California -- Santa Barbara Channel -- Photographs
Color slides
Color prints
Smith, Dick
Flat-oversize 1
Slides 1963 April-1976 February