Bidspirit auction | The Smith's Racing Photos Archive

The Smith's Racing Photos Archive - AUCTION NOTES - PLEASE READ - Quite likely the largest and most comprehensive Mid-Century regional racing archive in existence. You will never see another collection like this. Smith's Racing Photos was in business in Columbus, OH from 1947 to 1964, and was run by Worley Smith and his wife Mary Ellen. They were the preeminent documenters of 1940s and 50s racing in Central Ohio, across the Buckeye State and in the Midwest. Worley Smith also served as a an official starter and track official throughout the region, and from what we can surmise was a very well respected, very well connected insider during the formative years of US auto racing. Very little is known about the Smiths today, with next to nothing published anywhere on the Internet about them. What we do know is that after their passing, their entire business was packed up and put into storage until only recently, when our consignor brought the entire collection to us. Some sale notes - the many, many photos in this sale are all Type I, meaning they were printed by Worley from his negatives not long after shooting. These are not later prints. The negatives are all his original negatives. While some of his photographs were featured in regional racing publications and promotional material from the time, the vast majority of the photos in this auction are unpublished and have never before been seen. Worley was very organized, and our lots are generally grouped by date and race track. Worley's photo documentation of races was comprehensive, while it was impossible to show you every photo or notation - you can bet that he captured the most important moments, drivers, crashes, cars and winners from the races he attended and that you will find many treasures in these lots.  The photos are a rare - one of a kind - documentation of this glorious time in racing history. They include automobile racing such as jalopy, stock car and midget, early motorcycle racing and even some lots with early hydroplane racing in places such as Buckeye Lake. The also includes the wonderful and incredibly rare items Worley picked up and kept during his career such as original Powell Raceways sweatshirts, extremely rare early NASCAR material and a large amount of early ephemera.  Again, this collection has never seen the light of day. This will be the first time this material has been offered to the public, or even seen by anyone.  We put all of Worley's personal items including his and his wife's jackets, his original camera used to take these photos, his film camera, his passes, notebooks, correspondence with race bodies, family photos, paint kits for colorizing images and MUCH MUCH more into one lot. While we could have broken out his camera as its own lot, for instance, we opted not to. We felt that as a tribute to Smith's Racing Photography we should include all of his personal items in one very fine lot in this sale. May his memory live on through this collection and through the stewards of this material going forward.