The Rider-Waite tarot deck, originally published 1910, is one of the most popular tarot decks in use for divination in the English-speaking world. Other names for this deck include the Smith-Waite, Waite-Smith, Rider-Waite-Smith, or simply the Rider tarot deck. The cards were drawn by illustrator Pamela Colman Smith from the instructions of academic and mystic A. E. Waite and were published by the Rider Company.
Overview
While the images are simple, the details and backgrounds feature abundant symbolism. Some imagery remains similar to that found in earlier decks, but overall the Waite-Smith card designs represent a substantial departure from their predecessors. The Christian imagery of previous decks cards was toned down; for instance the "Pope" card became the "Hierophant" and the "Papess" became the "High Priestess". The Minor Arcana are illustrated with images by Smith, where earlier decks had simpler designs for the Minor Arcana but aligning this deck with, for example, the Sola Busca tarot. The symbols used were influenced by the 19th century magician and occultist Eliphas Levi.
The cards were originally published in November, 1909 by the publisher William Rider & Son of London. The following year, a small guide by A. E. Waite entitled The Key to the Tarot was bundled with the cards, providing an overview of the traditions and history behind the cards, texts about interpretations, and extensive descriptions of their symbols. The year after that, a revised version, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, was issued that featured black-and-white plates of all seventy-eight of Smith's cards. Several later versions of the deck, such as the Universal Waite deck, copy the Smithline drawings with minor changes and added more coloring. The Smith-Waite Centennial Tarot Deck was published by U.S. Games Systems in 2009 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the creation of the deck. This deck is a faithful reproduction of the original deck published in 1910 and uses the muted colors originally chosen by Smith.
Copyright status
In the United Kingdom, and by extension the rest of the European Union, copyright in the artwork for the deck will expire 70 years after the end of the year in which Smith died, i.e. on January 1, 2022. In the United States, the deck fell into the public domain in 1966, and thus has been available for use by American artists in numerous different media projects. U.S. Games Systems has a copyright claim on their updated version of the deck published in 1971, but this only covers new material added to the pre-existing work.
