The Smith Glacier originates on the north slopes of Toney Mountain, and flows northeast past the Kohler Range.

Named by US-ACAN after Commander Arthur R. Davis, USN, Supply Officer, Operation Deep Freeze, 1975-76 and 1976-77.

It was named by the United States Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) after Philip M. Smith (Smith Bluffs), Deputy Director, Office of Polar Programs, National Science Foundation, who in the period 1956–71 participated in many expeditions to Antarctica in field and supervisory capacities.

[1] In 2001, Dr. Andrew Shepherd, a research fellow at the Center for Polar Observation and Modeling at University College London, said that Smith Glacier was losing mass quickly and contributing to the slow rise of the oceans.

[5] In 2011, Hamish Pritchard, a scientist with the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, UK, said that Smith Glacier was thinning at a rate of 27 feet per year.