The First Wayland-Smiths is a photographic compilation documenting the family of Francis and Cornelia (nee Worden) Wayland-Smith, members of the Oneida Community—a mid-nineteenth century, religiously-based Perfectionist community. Francis' original surname was "Smith," and he considered it to be so common as to be "wholly useless," so he legally changed his surname to the hyphenated Wayland-Smith, and so the Wayland-Smith family began and grew.