The papers of Elizabeth Olmsted Smith pertain primarily to her activities in the peace movement in Buffalo, New York, from 1933 to 1941 and from 1950 to 1975. Also included are personal papers (mostly letters, 1923 to 1940) and materials concerning social work (1949 to 1957).

The papers relating to the peace movement prior to World War II document a number of local and national peace organizations, as well as some labor and social reform groups, but are strongest in their coverage of anti-war movement in Buffalo, New York, particularly the activities of the Buffalo Branch of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF).

In 1933, Elizabeth Smith corresponded with her aunt, Mildred Scott Olmsted, the Executive Secretary of the United States Section of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom about establishing a branch in Buffalo. The Buffalo Branch of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom was formed in 1935, with Smith as its Executive Secretary. She worked with the organization through the 1930s as a member and as the Legislative Chairman.

The papers concerning the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and the closely related Emergency Peace Campaign as well as the People's Mandate to Governments to End Wars, include correspondence, reports, notes on meetings, membership lists, drafts of speeches, and printed literature. In addition to her work with the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Elizabeth Smith was involved in other peace and social action groups. In the early 1930s, she was a member of the Socialist Party local and the League for Industrial Democracy; in 1933 she taught at "Emergency College" on the campus of the State Teachers College (now State University College at Buffalo); and in 1938 she worked as an organizer for the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. she attended the Ninth Conference on the Cause and Cure of War and the Summer Institutes for Social Progress held in Wellesley, Massachusetts. These activities are documented by correspondence, notes, pamphlets, flyers and other materials. The collection also includes materials saved by Elizabeth Smith concerning a variety of local and national peace organizations; and it contains files she assembled about topics of interest to her such as consumerism, cooperatives, socialism, and the labor movement.

Also preserved are card files of names and addresses used by Smith in connection with her work on a lecture series sponsored by the League for Industrial Democracy and probably also used in her work with the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and the Buffalo Peace Council.

Scrapbooks, compiled by Smith, concern the activities of the peace movement in Buffalo and the approach of World War II.

Although only the Buffalo Branch of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and, to a lesser extent, the Emergency Peace Campaign and the people's Mandate are documented in detail, the Smith papers also contain leaflets, newsletters and other printed materials from a large number of local anti-war organizations. Since most of these local groups were short lived, these printed materials may be the most significant surviving records of their existence.

The emphasis in these papers is on the pacifist side of the peace movement, though there are some printed materials from isolationist organizations, such as the America First Committee.

There are no papers surviving the war years.

The bulk of the Smith papers for 1950 to 1975 consists of printed materials issued by local and national organizations. Unlike the peace movement of the 1930s, which concentrated on anti-war activities, these papers reflect a changed peace movement which was linked to a broad push for social reform, including integration, open housing, civil liberties, support for the United Nations, as well as traditional pacifist aims such as disarmament.

Papers from the 1950s are fragmentary but provide evidence of a revived Buffalo Branch of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom during the Korean War.

While most of the material is printed, there is a small amount of correspondence and other written materials concerning Smith's involvement in the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom as well as in the issues of open housing and school desegregation through the Citizen's Council on Human Relations (CCHR) and Housing Opportunities Made Equal (HOME).

Elizabeth Smith was an active member of the Unitarian-Universalist Church, which supported a number of liberal causes, both nationally and locally. These church activities are documented in newsletters, sermons and church announcements (1954-1974).

Personal papers (1923-1940) consist largely of letters to Miss Elizabeth Olmsted from family and friends before her marriage in 1934. Also included is a journal kept by Miss Olmsted at Smith College and student papers. A portion of the correspondence (1931-1934, 1937 and 1939) reflects her attempts to find work after graduating from Smith College in the midst of the depression. Also included are course notes and papers from her studies at the School of Social Work at the University of Buffalo (1949-1954) and papers concerning her casework with the Erie County Board of Social Services and with the Methodist Home for Children.