[2] Smyth attended Princeton University, where he earned his BA (1938), MFA (1941), and PhD (1956), all in art history.
[3] He joined the naval reserve during World War II, and soon became part of the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives division.
As an MFAA officer, in 1945 he established the Allied collecting point in Munich.
After the war, he led the first academic program in conservation in the United States at the New York University Institute of Fine Arts (1950-1973).
He was also the director of Harvard University's Center for Italian Renaissance Studies at Villa I Tatti in Florence (1973-1985).