Hugh McCormick Smith (November 21, 1865 – September 28, 1941) was an American ichthyologist and administrator in the Bureau of Fisheries. He was born in Washington, D.C. In 1888, he received a Doctor of Medicine from Georgetown University; then, in 1908, a Doctor of Law from Dickinson. He began working for the U. S. Fish Commission in 1886 as an assistant. He directed the scientific research centre there from 1897 to 1903. From 1901 to 1902, he directed the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, Massachusetts. At the same time, he was on the faculty of Georgetown, teaching medicine from 1888 to 1902 and histology from 1895 to 1902. From 1907–1910 he led the Philippine Expedition aboard the USS Albatross. He was an associate editor of the National Geographic Society from 1909 to 1919. He was the author of many articles and publications, both popular and scientific, about fish. He was deputy commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries (1903–1913) and then commissioner (1913–1922). After he was pressured to resign that position, he moved to Thailand and worked as a fisheries adviser there. He moved back to the United States in 1935 and was curator of zoology at the Smithsonian Institution until his death in Washington, D.C. in 1941. While in the Smithsonian Institution, Smith was notable for his April 1st jokes, as he would often mislabel fish specimens for a humorous effect