Skip to main content
Use the right side menu to identify relevant boxes and place requests.

Roger P. Smith papers

 Collection 0064-MMC-NPBA

Roger Phillips Smith (1929- ) joined the CBS executive training program in 1955 and stayed with the network for several years. His public television career began at WTTW (Chicago, IL) in 1965. There he worked as an executive producer for a weekly one-hour prime time arts series titled Facet. His work on that series earned him two "Emmy" awards.

He worked at WNET (New York, NY) from 1967 to 1968, producing the show Newsfront, then joined the staff of WGBH (Boston, MA) and remained there for nine years serving as producer, director, and writer for several shows and films. He later became an independent producer with The Production House, Inc. (in MA) and Media Consulting & Production (in CA). He is the author of The Other Face of Public Television: Censoring the American Dream (2002).

The collection mostly documents Smith's work at WGBH with some materials about his work at WTTW, WNET, and The Production House, Inc.

Dates

  • Creation: 1929-1995, and undated
  • Creation: Majority of material found within 1971-1978

Use and Access to Collection

This collection is open for research use.

Conditions Governing Use

Photocopies or digital surrogates may be provided in accordance with Special Collections and University Archives duplication policy.

Copyright resides with the creators of the documents or their heirs unless otherwise specified. It is the researcher's responsibility to secure permission to publish materials from the appropriate copyright holder.

Archival materials may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal and/or state right to privacy laws or other regulations. While we make a good faith effort to identify and remove such materials, some may be missed during our processing. If a researcher finds sensitive personal information in a collection, please bring it to the attention of the reading room staff.

Extent

5.00 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Scope and Content of Collection

The Roger P. Smith papers span the period from 1929 to 1995, with the bulk of the material dating from 1971 to 1978. The papers consist of newspaper clippings, memos, correspondence, financial documents, reports, scripts, research notes, photographs, and slides. The collection deal largely with Smith's work at public television station WGBH in Boston. Most of the WGBH materials are production and research files for several of the shows Smith worked on. Also included are materials concerning Smith's work at WTTW, WNET, and The Production House.

Arrangement

The collection consists of three series.

  1. Series 1: WTTW and WNET
  2. Series 2: WGBH
  3. Series 3: The Production House, Inc.

Custodial History and Acquisition Information

The Roger P. Smith papers were donated to the National Public Broadcasting Archives, University of Maryland Libraries by Roger P. Smith in July of 1995.

Title
Guide to the Roger P. Smith papers
Status
Completed
Author
Processed by Heather Moore, November 1995.
Date
1995-11-01
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Code for undetermined script
Language of description note
Finding aid written in English

Revision Statements

  • 2007-04-15: EAD markup checked and verified using JEdit software by Karen E. King, April 2007.
  • 2007-05-15: EAD revised by Karen E. King, May 2007
  • 2010-01-06: EAD revised by Karen E. King, January 2010
  • 2011-04-07: EAD revised by Karen E. King, April 2011
  • 2019-01-18: Finding aid reviewed and minor edits made by Duncan Griffin.
  • 2021-08-06: Jim Baxter re-wrote the collection abstract.

Library Details

Part of the Special Collections and University Archives

Contact:
University of Maryland Libraries
Hornbake Library
4130 Campus Drive
College Park Maryland 20742
301-405-9212