PETER F. SMITH M.A., is a versatile, veteran teacher and an experienced student of history. Smith taught history and literature courses in Australia, the United Kingdom and in the USA for more than three decades. He is the author of a commemorative history of a leading Hunter Valley school and a contributor to an International Poetry Prize, conducted by the University of Canberra. He has a Master’s Degree in English from Indiana University. Smith lived in Maitland, where he restored a mid-Victorian heritage home and discovered his life-long passion for this unsung heritage city.
DR. CAMERON ARCHER WRITES IN THE FOREWORD…
I feel very privileged to write this foreword for the first book in this very special trilogy about the foundational history of Maitland. I am certain all readers will be in awe of Peter’s contribution to the history of our city and to the Maitland and wider community. The commitment and generosity of spirit that Peter has shown in researching and producing these books will be recognised by readers for generations to come…
SMITH WRITES…
SOME REACTIONS FROM READERS OF BOOK ONE…
A framed photograph stands proudly on my Amish-made studio oak desk, featuring fourth generation Maitlander Charles Winchester —half-a-world-away—holding The Footprints of Maitland’s Old Hands, book one. Charles brings to its pages nearly a century of Maitland memories—which make the book speak to him and transform its rare photographs into movie reels. In between reads, it rests on his bookshelf beneath soft white gloves for easy retrieval.
A second Maitland son—bound to Maitland across four generations—says book one is a Bible on Maitland History, while another reader— sprung from a foundational Maitland family of 1818, tells me he quickly found details in book one of his family’s early land holdings—of which he had no knowledge.
Maitland son and Maitland history author James Waddell writes to me: ‘your book is a great treasure…its coverage and breadth are masterful…the discovery of so many rare photographs in such unlikely places is worthy of a forensic investigator and the reproduction quality is outstanding…your narrative relates ‘history’ to ‘ground’ better than any previous attempt’.
Director of Maitland Regional Museum described it as ‘a seminal work’, while Maitland and District Historical Society call it ‘essential reading to understand early Maitland’.