Charles R. Smith (born 1866) was employed by the Persian Carpet Manufacturing Company in Sultanabad, a subsidiary of J.C.P. Hotz and Son, a import-export consortium with headquarters in London, and offices in Amsterdam, Isfahan, Bushehr, Basra and Shiraz. On the direct request of Hotz and Son, Smith had made investigations in Tabriz about carpet production costs and facilities. This letter prompts Smith to submit his report.

The C.R. Smith archive consists of an album of 60 mounted albumen prints (predominantly portraits and topographical views, taken in Iran and Iraq), a further 24 loose photographs, and a series of letters and memos.

These document a correspondence between Smith and various colleagues made throughout 1901, when Smith was approached to join a new carpet enterprise in Tabriz. He duly left Sultanabad where he had been working for the Persian Carpet Manufacturing Company, but by July of the same year he had returned to his native Kidderminster in England. It is not known if the Tabriz business plan was ever realised, but J.C.P. Hotz and Son went out of business in 1903.