Erwin Evans Smith Photographer

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Erwin Evans Smith (1886–1947), photographer, son of Albert A. and Mary Alice (Erwin) Smith, was born on August 22, 1886, in Honey Grove, Texas. When he was seven he moved fifteen miles west to Bonham with his mother, who had remarried after his father's death. As a boy he visited with relatives near Quanah, and he was introduced to ranch life in Hardeman and Foard counties. The cattle range so appealed to him that he began making sketches of horses and Indians, and he obtained an inexpensive camera to record what he saw. He rode the range in Arizona and Mexico as a regular cowhand, but he always took his camera along so that he could record what he knew was fast disappearing from the American scene.