Biographical and Historical Note

Charles Lee Smith was born on August 29, 1865, in Wilton, N.C., to Dr. Louis Turner Smith, a physician, and Nannie Green Howell Smith. In 1875, the Smith family moved to Durham where father Smith gained a large practice as physician and surgeon and established business interests. Charles Lee entered the Buchanan School, of which Luther T. Buchanan, a graduate of Wake Forest College, was principal. Charles D McIver, a recent graduate of the University of North Carolina, was one of his teachers.

In January 1882, Smith entered Wake Forest College as a sophomore with the intention was to study law. Joining the Philomathesian Literary Society, young Smith threw himself into its activities to obtain the maximum practice in speaking. The prominence which he won in the Society helped turn him from the law. In recognition of his skill in the use of language, the Society in 1883 elected him as the senior editor of The Wake Forest Student, the literary magazine established in January 1882; thus he became co-editor of its third volume.

After graduating from Wake Forest College in June 1884, Smith taught at the Raleigh Male Academy, was a member of the editorial staff at the Biblical Recorder and became a student in the Department of History and Politics in the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. His studies continued in 1888 in Germany at the University of Halle. Smith then returned to Johns Hopkins, where he earned his doctorate in 1889.

Continuing his work in academia, Smith stayed at Hopkins as instructor in history and lecturer in sociology. In summer 1905, the Mercer University, Baptist College of Georgia, Board of Trustees unanimously elected Smith president of that institution. Smith had an ambitious program for Mercer, but before the first scholastic year was out, it was evident that Smith was too far ahead of his constituency. He resigned after one year. By 1915, he had become the president of Edwards and Broughton, a Raleigh printing and publishing house with a superior reputation since 1871. He remained in the position for 33 years, and many Smiths joined the business as well.

In 1911, he was elected a trustee of the University of North Carolina, and in the following year he was chosen by the Board to serve on the executive committee as successor of Charles B. Aycock and later on the building committee; he continued to serve until 1932. Wake Forest College conferred on him the degree of LL. D. in 1906, and in 1941 when a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa was established at the college, he was one of the twenty alumni initiated as foundation members. Soon after returning to N.C., he led in the raising funds of Wake County alumni of Wake Forest and in raising funds for a Wake County scholarship.

In 1922, he began making annual journeys abroad. On these trips, which often lasted three to six months, he acted alternately as a political scientist studying other peoples and talking with their leaders, and a bibliophile collecting books and visiting libraries and book dealers. He traveled to Europe fifteen or more times, to Asia three times, and to Africa three times. In 1924 he took a trip around the world.

Smith and Miss Sallie Lindsay Jones were married on October 24, 1889, in High Point, N.C. Together they had three sons and one daughter. After Sallie's death in 1931, Smith was married to Celeste Henkel in 1934 and then, following Celeste's death, Cora Vaughn. Smith died July 14, 1951, and is buried in Raleigh's Oakwood Cemetery.

When Smith presented his library to Wake Forest College in 1941, he stipulated that it be maintained intact as a separate unit so that "future generations can have a realistic example of a comprehensive private library of the first half of the twentieth century." Oscar T. Smith, Charles Lee Smith's brother and fellow Wake Forest alumnus (1888), also left a trust to continue building on and preserving his brother's donated collection.

Collection Overview

The Charles Lee Smith papers are a complement to the Charles Lee Smith Library of rare books at Wake Forest University. The papers illustrate Smith's personal and professional interests, his personal correspondence, his familiarity with Gandhi, and his travels. The collection spans from World War I printed materials to the Program for Wake Forest University Presentation of the Charles Lee Smith Library.

Collection Arrangement

These papers are organized generally as Charles Lee Smith kept them. Series include: Personal Materials; Professional Materials; Printed Materials; Photographs; and a Scrapbook on the death of Ulysses S. Grant.

Collection Inventory

• Personal Materials  (1879-1942)
  • Lady Watson Materials   (1879-1942, bulk: 1939-1941) box 1 folder 1-68 (This collection of correspondence is primarily between C.L. Smith and Lady Maureen Watson (wife of Sir John Willliam Watson) ranging from the years 1939-1941. Additional materials from other writers and recipients include William Watson, George G. Harrap, Edward S. Cox-Sinclair, D. Lloyd George, J. Alex. Symington, David Wilson, A. Doyle, Gilbert Murray, Arthur Severns, Maria LaTouche, Joan Evans, and Lord Halifax. Although materials are included with the dates ranging from 1879 to 1942, the majority of the written materials were produced during the mid-1930's to 1941. Photographic prints, newspaper clippings, and photostatic copies of documents are included as part of the series of correspondence.)
  • "A Visit to Mahatma Gandhi" letter   (1924 April) box 1 folder 69 (This letter, written to Charles Lee Smith's children, was written on board the Cunard R.M.S. "Laconia." and accounts Smith's visit to Mahatma Gandhi April 13, 1924. This folder includes the manuscript, a typed transcript, clippings, and photocopies of the title pages of the books from where the letter was bound.)
  • Letters of Introduction box 2 folder 1 (This collection of materials was originally grouped together by the donor. Letters of introduction by Manley O. Hudson, of the Law School of Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. are grouped with other correspondence between Smith and Hudson. H.M. London, Secretary and Treasurer of the North Carolina Bar Association, Secretary of the North Carolina Agricultural Society, and Secretary of the Board of Trustees of the University of North Carolina also provides letters of introdution for Charles Lee Smith on his foreign travel. The Governor of the State of North Carolina, as well as J.H. Dickinson of Clark's Cruises are among others writing letters of introduction for foreign travels in 1925 and 1927.)
  • Wake Forest College box 2 folder 2
  • Richard T. Ely Correspondence box 2 folder 3
  • Correspondence box 2 folder 4
• Professional Materials
  • Mercer University box 2 folder 5
  • The University of North Carolina box 2 folder 6 box 2 folder 7
• Printed Materials
  • Wake Forest College Commencement Program (1930) box 3 folder 1
  • A History of North Carolina box 3 folder 2
  • The Southern Printer (1946 December 16) box 3 folder 3
  • The Tarheel Banker (September 1945) box 3 folder 4
  • The Forty and Eighter (December 1948) box 3 folder 6
  • The German White Paper (1940) box 3 folder 6
  • The Red Cross (1919) box 3 folder 7
  • French Army Materials box 3 folder 8
  • World War I Materials box 3 folder 9
  • World War I Materials: "Halt the Hun" Poster box 4 folder 1
  • Wake Forest College Alumni News (1930) box 3 folder 10
  • UNC Alumni Review (1917-1918) box 3 folder 11
  • Masonic Temple Officers and Committees Roster (1946-1947) box 3 folder 12
  • Voices of Peace (1939) box 3 folder 13
  • Chicago Civic Opera Company (1931) box 3 folder 14
  • University of California (1931) box 3 folder 15
  • Duke University (1929-1930) box 3 folder 16
  • Advancing the Frontier of Human Knowledge  (1925) box 3 folder 17
  • Authentic Visitors Guide to the World's Columbian Exposition and Chicago  (1893) box 3 folder unknown container
  • Scenic Prints box 3 folder 19
  • Program for Wake Forest University Presentation of the Charles Lee Smith Library  (1958 March 13) box 3 folder 20
  • The University of North Carolina Record Report to the President (December 1929) box 3 folder 21
  • Repport of Engineers on the Condition of Memorial Hall- UNC box 3 folder 22
  • Uncategorized Materials (circa 1920s) box 3 folder 23
  • Newspapers and Clippings, mostly related to World War I box 4 folder 4 box 3 folder 24
  • Mahatma Gandhi Clippings oversize 1
• Photographs
  • Photographs of Port Arthur, Tasmania, Australia box 4 folder 2
  • Photograph of the County Seat of Davie, N.C. box 4 folder 3
  • William Jewell College Faculty and Student photographs box 3 folder 25
• Scrapbook of the death of Ulysses S. Grant box 4

Summary Information

Repository

Z. Smith Reynolds Library Special Collections and Archives

Creator

Watson, William

Creator

Smith, Charles Lee

Title

Charles Lee Smith Papers

ID

MS604

Date

circa 1879-1942

Quantity

1 legal sized letter box, 1 half letter box, 1 letter boxes, one oversized flat box

Extent

2  Linear Feet

Administrative Information

Publication Information

Z. Smith Reynolds Library Special Collections and Archives, 2010

Revision Description

Revised by Stephanie Bennett, 2023

Conditions Covering Access

This collection is open for use. 

Copyright Notice

The nature of the WFU Z.Smith Reynolds Library Special Collections and Archives means that copyright or other information about restrictions may be difficult or even impossible to determine despite reasonable efforts. The Archives and Special Collections of ZSR Library claims only physical ownership of most materials. The materials from our collections are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study, pursuant to the U.S. Copyright Law. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Any materials used for academic research or otherwise should be fully credited with the source. 

Preferred Citation

Charles Lee Smith Papers (MS604), Z. Smith Reynolds Library Special Collections and Archives, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC, USA. 

Controlled Access Headings

Personal Name(s)

• Andrews, C. F. (Charles Freer), 1871-1940

Related Materials

For digitized materials, please see our Charles Lee Smith Collection.

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