Pamela Colman Smith

Pamela Colman Smith (original)

Saw this link and noted it said she was buried in a pauper's field. Just thinking how great it would be to find out where (if one even could) and somehow get TarotFolk together to get her a proper headstone at least. Just would seem she deserves at least that for all she has given to tarot and with all the TarotFolk around the world, think what a small amount it would take from even a small number of us to get her a decent headstone.....just a thought. From what I've read, no one seems to know exactly where she's buried. Just think she's deserves something and it's a shame her grave isn't even marked properly....

http://www.servingspirits.com/pamela-colman-smith.html

I do very much agree with you.
The old county of Middlesex (middle south) in Anglo Saxon is now subsumed into the greater London area.
Pamela Colman-Smith might be burried anywhere from Ponders End to Ruislip.
Personally i would be pleased to offer a donation in memory of this lady who Willowfox on here, some time ago highly praised for original artistic imigary in the contemporary Tarot.

Good luck with your project, greatdane!

meh, a corpse is a corpse.

Personally, I would like to see her continual impact on the arts. They could call it the "Pamela Coleman Smith Award for Excellence in Visual Synthesis of Spiritual Truth." U.S. Games could prolly afford this and write it off.

I would never be eligible as an artist, but I think she deserves some real recognition in a field she devoted herself so strongly to.

Aladdin said:

I do very much agree with you.
The old county of Middlesex (middle south) in Anglo Saxon is now subsumed into the greater London area.
Pamela Colman-Smith might be burried anywhere from Ponders End to Ruislip.
Personally i would be pleased to offer a donation in memory of this lady who Willowfox on here, some time ago highly praised for original artistic imigary in the contemporary Tarot.

Click to expand...

I actually live in the Middlesex area, and though I could conceivably visit every cemetary in the county, how likely is it that she is buried here? Did she actually die in Middlesex too (or had her burial here)? Anyone know?

I refer you to an earlier thread here.

I didn't really expect some of the responses here.

When I read she was buried in a pauper's field, I didn't necessarily see that as someone who wanted that as privacy. My only thought was to show a final mark of respect and recognition. Being buried in an unmarked pauper's grave didn't really seem to do that. This thread is just about thoughts regarding a very special woman who had given much to our tarot world, and the world in general. The recent US Games set to honor her made me think that it might be nice to do something re a marker of any kind.

We all have a right to our own opinion and mine was just that I thought it would be a nice gesture to have some small marker with a few words of respect and recognition for all she has done for not just the tarot world, but the art world. But if someone knows for sure that her final wish was to be buried in an unmarked grave in a pauper's field, if there was something in a will she wrote that said that, then I would certainly respect her wishes.

I started this thread as a sign of respect and with the idea of doing something to honor her memory. I agree with the post about also having some type of recognition for her contribution to the art world. I think she was really an amazing woman whose work continues to help inspire and enlighten.

There will be those who agree or disagree about doing something like a marker, but surely most can understand my main idea was just borne out of respect for someone whose artwork is such an integral part of tarot for me.

Gregory,
thank you for that link, i didn't know that, possibly along with a few others. The local people pronounce the name of this little town as "Bood". Unfortunately never been there, one of the few places down here which has escaped me.

Ah, many are still doing so, my friends!

...every lovely, lively reading that has been ever done by you...and is being done with a close copy of her images is one of the nicest tributes--her art is alive in your hands and her images that inspire you..your reading to another is linking you to her, to be a storyteller as she was.

A creative shadowbox or a stone marker is a relic of earth on earth, and I can see this would feel certainly significant, more appropriate to some gentle hearts.

If you could write a tribute that would pay the respects that you would like...her inspiration to yourself... perhaps even in your own way, making some kind of marker, it might give some peaceable respite?

There are some websites dedicated to her work and helping others find such information about Pamela Colman Smith as an artist and writer...links in the Rider Waite Forum....I've even read or seen work by artists and writers who have presented in the past year or so with warm conversation or cheerful recognition of Pamela Colman Smith. Many in our own way are 'contributing' to keeping images, ideas, art and what we can find about her accessible to others in that area. Hope this posting helps to keep one in good cheer on the ideas you have...

Stuart Kaplan wanted to put her a grave stone.

This is what he said about it.

Unfortunately, she died dead broke in 1951 without any assets. No one could pay for her burial so she was put into a pauper's grave in Cornwall, England. When I went there ten years ago to try to find her gravesite -- we were going to erect a tombstone -- we were told that if you were destitute, your grave was actually put on top of another person's grave and after twenty-five years there was no way to find out where she was actually buried. The irony is that if you take a look at all the Rider-Waite decks we published -- times each card, there's probably a half a billion or more images of hers that are floating around the world. And she got no benefit from it.

From this interview

http://www.lightworks.com/MonthlyAspectarian/1999/June/699-02.htm