Pamela Colman Smith’s illustrations for the Rider Waite tarot deck are known to millions worldwide, but her many other contributions as an artist, folklorist, editor, and suffragist have received relatively little attention until recently. She was active from the 1890s through the 1920s, during the critical transition from the Victorian to Modernist eras. Drawing on new findings from her literary biography, Pamela Colman Smith: Artist, Feminist & Mystic, Elizabeth Foley O’Connor will share new details about Colman Smith’s life and work, especially her time in New York. Although she spent most of her life in England, Colman Smith was descended from two well-connected Brooklyn families. She attended the Pratt Instituted and launched her career as an artist and illustrator in Manhattan and was the first non-photographic artist that Alfred Stieglitz exhibited at his 291 galleries on Fifth Avenue. Colman Smith was well-known in the City’s artistic community and often gave several performances of Jamaican Anansi tales at venues around the City, including a memorable performance for Mark Twain.

Elizabeth Foley O’Connor is an Associate Professor of English and Director of the Gender Studies program at Washington College.

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