The James Merrick Smith and Hal F. B. Birchfield collection contains images, letters, news articles, DVDs and a CDs highlighting the stellar lives, careers and involvement of James Merrick Smith and Hal Birchfield in their personal, professional and civic activities.

With his vision of design becoming much more than the up-market selling of merchandise, James Merrick Smith set about the machinery of change that would make interior design a legitimate and accredited profession.   This progression would require the development of education, testing, administration and implementation and then onward to governmental accreditation. James Merrick Smith was the person that not only had the vision but the guts and the charisma and good fortune to find others to help fulfill this dream of professionalization of the field of interior design. Life partner Hal Birchfield would also be a part of this much involved process. And among other facets of their lives was the matter of the highly respected professional work the office of James Merrick Smith and Hal Birchfield achieved, setting high professional standards for interior design excellence.