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Dave Smith - Director of Archives, The Walt Disney Company

With the establishment of the Walt Disney Archives on June 22, 1970, Dave Smith joined The Walt Disney Company as the director of Archives. As the archivist, Smith is charged with collecting and preserving all aspects of Disney history and making the material available to researchers both inside and outside the company.

Smith’s connection with the company dates back to 1967 when, as a librarian at UCLA, he compiled an extensive bibliography on Walt Disney, spending over a year researching all Disney publications and productions.
When the Disney family and Studio management decided to do something to preserve Walt Disney’s papers, awards and memorabilia, it was natural for them to contact Smith to do a study and make a recommendation which established the guidelines and objectives of the archives. The project eventually expanded to encompass not only Walt Disney, but also the history of the entire Disney organization, and Smith was selected as archivist. In the years since Archives was established, it has come to be recognized as a model among corporate archives in the country. And Smith is now regarded as the final authority on matters of Disney history.
Born and raised in Pasadena, Calif., the child of librarians and educators, Smith earned a B.A. in history and a master’s in library science from the University of California at Berkeley. While in school, he worked part-time for six years in the Manuscript Department of the Huntington Library in San Marino, where he received his first taste of library-archives work.
Upon receiving his library degree, he was selected as one of seven outstanding graduates of library schools throughout the country to participate in an internship program at the Library of Congress in Washington. Later, he returned to California where he served for five years as a reference librarian at the UCLA Research Library. While there, Smith authored several articles and had bibliographies published on the Monitor and the Merrimac Civil War warships, and on Jack Benny.
As the Disney archivist Smith is an active member of the Society of California Archivists. He served from 1980 to 2001 as executive director of the Manuscript Society, an international association of collectors, dealers, librarians, archivists and others interested in manuscript material.
Smith has written extensively on Disney history, with a regular column in Disney Magazine and the former Disney Channel Magazine, and numerous articles in such publications as Disney News, Starlog, Manuscripts, The American Archivist and The California Historical Quarterly. He is the author of the official Disney encyclopedia, Disney A to Z (updated 1998), and with Kevin Neary he co-authored The Ultimate Disney Trivia Books 1, 2, 3 & 4. His book, Disney: The First 100 Years, co-authored with Steven Clark, was published in 1999. His latest book, The Quotable Walt Disney, a compilation of Disney’s quotes, was published this year. He has written introductions to a number of other Disney books and often lectures on Disney subjects.
A Burbank, Calif., resident, Smith recently celebrated his 31st anniversary with The Walt Disney Company.

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