Pamela Colman Smith, artist behind the Rider‑Waite tarot deck

Pamela Colman Smith hand-painted around 80 illustrations for the Rider‑Waite tarot deck, which has sold around 100 million copies in more than 20 countries. Though she was not a tarot reader, she had long been drawn to magic and occult ideas and joined the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.

Arthur Edward Waite commissioned her to illustrate the deck he was creating in 1909; she was paid a small one‑time fee after many months of work and research. When the deck was later mass‑marketed in England, her name was left off the packaging, though she inked coiling initials in the corner of each card.

Mary K. Greer, the author of Tarot for Your Self, said the deck “transcends time and space,” and illustrator Tamara Scott‑Williams has noted that Colman Smith’s Caribbean childhood informed her imagery. Colman Smith was also an author, publisher and activist. She wrote and illustrated Annancy Stories (1899), ran the Green Sheaf Press and published Chim‑Chim (1905), and in 1907 became the first non‑photographer shown by Alfred Stieglitz at his gallery 291.

She designed posters for the Suffrage Atelier, joined protests and was jailed at least once, and wrote a manifesto, “A Protest Against Fear.” Later in life she converted to Catholicism, helped revive a chapel she named Our Lady of the Lizard, and spent her remaining days in Bude, England.

Key Topics

Culture, Pamela Colman Smith, Rider-waite Deck, Golden Dawn, Arthur Edward Waite, Suffrage Atelier