| | Abstract: | Dorothy E. Smith was a Cleveland, Ohio, African American music teacher and the first African American member of the Cleveland Women's Orchestra. A violinist, she was a 1931 graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music and was a music teacher at the Cleveland Music School Settlement, the Phillis Wheatley Association, the Friendly Inn Settlement, and Knoxville College. She was also a supervisor for the Ohio State Department of Aid for the Aged until her retirement in 1973. Dorothy E. Smith was the daughter of Joseph W. Smith and Elizabeth Rayner. Joseph W. Smith moved to Cleveland in the late 1880s. He established a barbershop on Central Avenue in Cleveland, managed baseball teams in the 1890s and early 1900s, and was also a musician. The collection consists of correspondence, letters, cards, cemetery records, funeral programs, obituaries, legal files, memberships, a deed, certificates, newspaper clippings, student newspapers, playscripts, postcards, programs, reports, receipts, sheet music, yearbooks, and memorabilia. | |
