Arthur Smith

Who is Arthur Smith?

Arthur Smith was a British natural history illustrator who specialised in entomology. He was born in the village of Eastburn, between Skipton and Keighley in Yorkshire, UK.

During his youth he developed a keen interest in natural history from walks on the York Moors. At 15 he attended Keighley College of Arts and Crafts and then the Royal College of Art in London. He graduated with a Silver Medal awarded for Special Distinction in the School of Design.

In 1940 he commenced his career as a freelance illustrator at the British Museum. To avoid the disruption of the London Blitz during World War II he moved to Letchworth at the invitation of a colleague, Frederick Wallace Edwards. Edwards died shortly afterwards, but had put Smith in touch with James Edward Collin, for whom he produced 950 illustrations for the latter’s book on British empididae. The book was eventually published in 1961.

Smith also collaborated with Dame Miriam Rothschild illustrating her book: Fleas, Flukes and Cuckoos. This led to him illustrating, with over 1000 drawings, An Illustrated Catalogue of the Rothschild Collection of Fleas in the British Museum, an enormous work of 5 large volumes published between 1953 and 1971.