[1] Robert Smith was born on February 26, 1912, in Cranford, New Jersey.

[1] Smith received his doctorate from Harvard University, where he presented a dissertation on the German architect living in Portugal João Frederico Ludovice in 1939.

He joined the University of Pennsylvania in 1947 and taught at the institution's School of Fine Arts from 1956 until his death in 1975.

[3] In the 1960s he carried out an inventory of Talha Dourada in Portugal with a grant from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.

[5] In his will, he bequeathed his collection of documents and photographs to the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.