About Jeff Smith

Jeffrey E. Smith, PhD, is an experienced Chautauqua performer having portrayed P.T. Barnum, William Clark, and Andrew Carnegie more than 150 times in both academic and public forums.  He has also performed as both PT Barnam and William Clark in Greenville, SC.

His debut performance as George Washington at Greenville Chautauqua 2009 is a specially commissioned event. Jeff is history professor at Lindenwood Univ. in St. Charles, MO and holds a PhD in History from the University of Akron, an MA in Museology from Syracuse University and a BA in History and Political Science from Mount Union College.

Before joining the faculty at Lindenwood, Smith spent 13 years as director of a historical society in Ohio and a history research library in St. Louis. He is the recipient of the 2007 President’s Award as Teacher-Scholar at Lindenwood University.

His most recent book is Seeking a Newer World: The Fort Osage Journals and Letters of George Sibley, 1808-1811, dealing with the experiences of the chief trade factor at Fort Osage in Missouri. Smith is now writing The Education of William Clark, analyzing the ways Clark’s “western trip” altered his world view and life.

Dr. Smith lives in a century-old house in St. Louis with his wife, Kris Runberg, and their teenage daughter, Lucy.