The Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot (1909)

If you picture a tarot card, you're almost certainly picturing the Rider-Waite-Smith deck. Published in London in 1909, it became the most influential tarot ever made — the template for the majority of modern decks.

Waite and Smith

The deck was conceived by the occultist Arthur Edward Waite and illustrated by the artist Pamela Colman Smith, both associated with the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. It was first issued by the publisher William Rider & Son, alongside Waite's guidebook, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910). For decades Smith's enormous contribution was under-credited; the modern name "Rider-Waite-Smith" restores her to the title.

The big innovation: illustrated pips

Earlier decks like the Marseille showed the numbered minor cards as plain arrangements of suit symbols. Smith illustrated all 78 cards with full scenes, giving every minor a memorable image. This made the deck far easier to read intuitively — a huge reason for its dominance.

Why it still rules

Its clear symbolism became a shared visual language; countless decks are "RWS-based." Because the original artwork is now public domain in the United States, it can be freely reproduced — which is why you'll see it everywhere, and why it's a safe reference alongside our original house-style art.