Sydney Ure Smith, publisher, was responsible for the establishment of Art in Australia in 1916-1942 and the journals The Home and Australian National Journal. He was the leading publisher of art books in Australia and the major figure in Sydney's art world from the 1920s until the 1940s. He was president of the NSW Society of Artists for two decades and he was a foundation member of the Painters Etchers Society and a driving force behing the short-lived Australian Academy of Art.