Charles H. Smith (historian of Science)

Charles H. Smith (born 30 September 1950) is a professor and science librarian at Western Kentucky University (WKU). He was born at Winsted, Connecticut USA. He is best known for his work as a historian of science, especially for his expertise on the career of Alfred Russel Wallace.

He created and maintains the website The Alfred Russel Wallace Page hosted by WKU and devoted to Wallace scholarship, which includes a comprehensive bibliography of Wallace's publications and interviews, texts of many of Wallace's works, and writings on Wallace by Smith and others. Smith has also produced a number of conventional writings on Wallace including the anthology Alfred Russel Wallace: An Anthology of His Shorter Writings published in 1991, a three-volume collection Alfred Russel Wallace: Writings on Evolution, 1843-1912 published in 2004, an edited collection of writings Natural Selection and Beyond: The Intellectual Legacy of Alfred Russel Wallace published in 2008, and various journal articles.

Smith was originally trained as a biogeographer and has technical publications in that field, including the bibliographic compilation Biodiversity Studies: A Bibliographic Review published in 2000, and additionally several websites. He has also created and maintains three well known sites on music education hosted by WKU: The 111 Greatest Acts of the Anglo-American Folk Music Tradition, The Classical Music Navigator, and Malvina Reynolds: Song Lyrics and Poems.

Smith received a B.A. (1972) in Geology, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut; M.A. (1980), in Geography, Indiana University; Ph.D. (1984), in Geography (emphasis: Biogeography; minor: History & Philosophy of Science), University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana; M.L.S. (1995), University of Pittsburgh.