Ned Smith: The Man and the Illustrator

Now on view in RTPI’s galleries are breathtaking original works and artifacts from the collections of the Ned Smith Center for Nature & Art!  E. Stanley “Ned” Smith was born Oct. 9, 1919, in Millersburg, Pa., a small town on the Susquehanna River north of Harrisburg.  A self-trained artist and naturalist, in his 46-year career he created thousands of astonishingly accurate drawings and paintings of wildlife for books, magazines, and other publications, as well as dozens of limited-edition prints.  Smith created nearly 120 cover paintings for Pennsylvania Game News, the agency’s magazine, and in the 1960’s he began a monthly column he dubbed “Gone for the Day” that proved to be enduringly popular.  The column ran for four years, and in 1971 was republished in book form.  It remains in print, one of the classics of Pennsylvania nature writing.

His freelance work included long-running columns, articles, and illustrations in Sports Afield, National Wildlife, Pennsylvania Angler, South Carolina Wildlife, National Geographic, and other magazines, and over the years he illustrated 14 books, including the Peterson Field Guide to Birds’ Nests by the noted naturalist Hal Harrison.