In the Realm of the Readers

In this installment of "Your Wate and Fate," we take a look at the fascinating subject of how psychic readers and rootworkers of the past advertised their services to the public. My Patreon supporters funded my research and the scanning of paper ephemera for this web page and had access to it one full year before the public did.

• Patreon Release Date: August 7th, 2021.
• Public Release Date: August 7th, 2022.
• Patreon Release Date: August 28th, 2021.
• Public Release Date: August 28th, 2022.
• Patreon Release Date: February 14th, 2023.
• Public Release Date: February 14th, 2024.
• Patreon Release Date: June 21st, 2023.
• Public Release Date: June 21st, 2024.

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August 7th, 2022 — The Prophetic Profession.

August 28th, 2022 — In the Realm of the Readers

February 14th, 2024 — Beneath the Realm of the Readers

June 21st, 2024 - The Realm of the Readers Strikes Back!

All of the material you have access to here -- the instructive booklets, the nostalgic postcards, the boldly graphic ephemera, and all of the historical information researched and shared from the mind of the woman who is making it all happen -- can easily fit into one 8 x 10 foot room in an old Victorian farmhouse, but you would never see it without the investment of the time it takes to produce such a site and the caloric input such a site requires in the form of food for the writer, graphic designer, and database manager, as well as the US currency needed to pay for the computers, software applications, scanners, electricity, and internet connectivity that bring it out of that little room and into the world.

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Enter the Realm of the Readers

Throughout this site you will encounter many mechanical devices, tools, and symbol-systems used to tell fortunes and predict a client's fate. In a sense, "Your Wate and Fate" is a tribute to the mechanical genius of those who have sought to create self-working forms of divination, such as wheels and spinners, penny scales, and coin-operated character reading machines.

But who are the operators of the devices of fate? Who spins the wheels, rolls the dice, pulls the cards, searches the stars, reads the palms, calls up the ghosts, writes the texts on the arcade papers, throws the bones, casts the coins, gazes into the crystals, shuffles the sortilege, or interprets the tea leaves? Why, the fortune tellers, of course.

Fortune tellers, also known as psychic readers, spiritual mediums, seers, or soothsayers, are people who earn part, most, or all of their living by divining the futures of seekers who come to them for information and assistance. Some fortune tellers specialize in character readings, some in short- or long-term predictions, and some prefer to give answers to specific questions only.

It is one thing to study divination by its methods, but it is another to study it by researching its practitioners. Often subjected to the abuse of skeptics, often working under assumed names where their trade is illegal, fortune tellers generally serve a clientele in need of carefully nuanced advice, both spiritual and pragmatic. The fact that they have chosen this unconventional career makes them worthy of interest. Certainly some have been con artists and frauds, but more are helpful advisors with spiritual gifts, retired stage performers, or occult and metaphysical authors, and most of them by far toil at the work of reading futures day after day for decades, developing small but dedicated followings in rural villages or downtown city offices. Who they are, and why they do this, is as important a question as how they do it.

It's All Emphemera

In taking up and considering my own career in divination, i have found it meaningful to look into the lives of those who lived before me and did the same. Of course i have read the biographies of the famed, and sometimes scandalous, seers of history, from Cassandra and the Witch of Endor to Nostradamus and Edgar Cayce -- but i am frankly more interested in the lives and methods of the lesser-known readers -- the fortune tellers, not the prophets. One way to get to know them, and to see where my methods accord with theirs and how i can learn from them, is to research them as if they were beloved ancestors or long-lost cousins.

The easiest way to access the minds of people who have died is to view the written or artistic remnants of their lives. Did they publish books or pamphlets on fortune telling methods, write newspaper or magazine columns, sign their names to texts or illustrations?

The next best way to research the lives of fortune tellers is to seek out secondary sources. Were they interviewed or photographed, did they leave a record of arrest and imprisonment, did someone write a first-hand reminiscence about them? Such documentation, because it is not created by the readers themselves, is subject to the varied opinions of the observers. I always take a cautious approach to the literality of such sources. When a hard-working fortune teller becomes some journalist's example of slothful depravity or fumbling foolery i am not looking into the mind of the reader -- rather, i am reading the journalist's mind.

Of course, finding out about famous Roman seers or Renaissance prognosticators is not difficult. In addition to their own works, mentions of the best-known soothsayers of history appear in the journals, diaries, and biographical notes of their time. In such cases i can achieve both a primary and a secondary glimpse into their lives.

Painted and gilded sheet metal advertising sign for a Fortune Teller, early 21st century

But what about the common, everyday fortune tellers? How may they be known?

For me, as with most everything, the answer is, "It's all ephemera." Beginning in the 19th century, with the rise of cheap printing, fortune tellers everywhere advertised their services in newspapers, magazines, and via business cards and publicity photos.

I collect such business cards and photographs, and when i have free time, i amuse myself by using newspaper archives, genealogical sites, and old books to see if i can learn more about these long-dead colleagues of mine.

This page is the opening of a door to an obscure dimension wherein dwell the shades of the seers who have gone before us. I call it "The Realm of the Readers."

Evidentiary Sightings

In the religion of Spiritualism, an evidentiary medium is one who not only contacts the dead and delivers their messages to the living, but also provides physical evidence of having done so. The evidence may consist of visible images of ghosts or spirits, apports or small items that have materialized, or phenomena such as cold winds in a closed room, or the unexplained whiff of a departed one's favourite perfume. In the case of our dear departed psychic colleagues, the evidences that remain are often business cards or newspaper clippings.

During the years from 1850 to 2000, thousands of psychic readers hung out their shingles, presented clients with cartes de visite, passed along their business cards, paid for newspaper ads, or scaled throw-out cards into their lecture audiences, but i can only report on those who have left a trace, a link to their passage through the world. I actively collect such cards and photographs, and if you have any for sale, i would love to hear from you.

I shall begin by listing the names of some of the psychic readers with whom i have been in contact from beyond the grave through the paper goods and signage they have left for me to find. In times to come, i will link each these names to primary and secondary sources of evidence of their work among us. A few tempting images and links are scattered here on this page as teasers for much more to come. My intention is to create a web page honouring each reader for whom i have found ephemera. The result will be an encyclopedia or directory of 150 years of psychic readers in private practice.

Silk-screened metal face-plate for a mechanical Madame-X fortune-telling napkin holder, 1950s

The names are in alphabetical order by surname. If the reader only went by a first name and an honorific title, the first name is what is used. I have listed their own self-stated descriptions of their occupations or methodologies insofar as possible.

The dates given here are not birth and death dates; rather they are the dates of the business cards, newspaper clippings, and signage i have accumulated. Some of these dates are exact and some are approximate, with my estimates of date-ranges based both on biographical research and by identification of type fonts and illustration styles popular during certain eras.

Likewise, the locations given here refer only to the places indicated on the business cards or advertisements of services. When birth and death dates and other locations are known, they will also be given.

Because i have placed a special focus on African-American hoodoo in my historical research, i have noted which readers i know for certain were black. Some definitely were white, some Romani, and at least one was Indian. Those for whom no specific ethnic or cultural information is given can be presumed to be of unknown background.

Some of the linked pages to which this list points are to be found on other web sites -- but all of these off-site pages are the results of my own research and were written by me.

Check them out, and watch as more names and more links appear here over time.

A

• Mrs. Ann: Card Reader and Palmist; Boardwalk, Atlantic City, New Jersey, 1960-1970s.

Business card of The Aquarian Age, Astrological, Occult, and Metaphysical Books and Objects at Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1970

• The Aquarian Age: Astrological, Occult, and Metaphysical Books and Objects; 74 Winthrop St., Harvard Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1970; at most shops like this, from the 1890s to the present, one could arrange for a reading. The reader might be a staff member who clocked out to do the reading, or a phone call might summon a reader from nearby, or if the shop had a lot of walk-in traffic, a special room or corner would be set aside to be staffed by a reader per dayat appointed times or for frop-ins.

B

Business card of Lee Baine, Palm Reader at Sanford, North Carolina, 1960s-1990s

Reverse side of the business card of Lee Baine, Palm Reader at Sanford, North Carolina, 1960s-1990s

• Lee Baine: Palmist; Sanford, North Carolina, 1960s-1990s. Lee Baine lived and worked at 1612 Hawkins Avenue, Sanford, North Carolina. This business card is from the 1960s, but Baine lived at least into the 1990s, long enough to have an email address. (lbaine@earthlink.net). Google Street View caught his house in the process of being remodelled in 2018, so he had probably died by then.
• Stanley Barrett (Gail C. Blakey): Astrologer and Author; location unknown (possibly Ohio), 1930s.

Large business card for The Mystic Tea Room in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, owned by Bernice Barton, who offered customers free card, palm, crystal ball, and tea leaf readings with meals.

• Bernice Barton: Tea Leaf Reader and Tea Room Proprietor; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1950s-1960s. Read more about her at The Mystic Tea Room web pages on "Having Your Fortune Told At a Tea Room". She was European-American.
• Prof. Belmont: Gifted Medium And Palmist, one of the Diviners of Dayton.
• Lady Berdell: Reader; one of the Diviners of Dayton.
• Mrs. Booth: Blind Phrenologist; one of the Diviners of Dayton.

C

• Madame Careta: Palmist; location unknown, 1910s.
• Carita: Card Reader and Palmist; one of the Diviners of Dayton.
• Charlotta: Reader And Adviser; one of the Diviners of Dayton.
• Clifford William Cheasly: Numerologist and Author; New York City, New York, and Boston, Massachusetts, 1913-1975. He was European-American.
• Mystic Clayton: Crystal Gazer and Psychic Reader; Travelling Entertainer, 1920s-1930s. He was European-American.

Business card of Mrs. Myrtle Collins, Spiritual Doctor and Rootworker, collected by Harry M. Hyatt in Memphis Tennessee, 1937

• Mrs. Myrtle Collins: Spiritual Doctor, Psychic Reader, and Rootworker; Memphis, Tennessee, 1930s. She was an African-American practitioner of conjure, interviewed by the folklorist Rev. Harry M. Hyatt twice, and was doubly numbered as Informant #926 on cylinders 1503-1509, and Informant #1538 on cylinders 2779-2793. ; a transcription of her interviews can be found in his 5-volume book "Hoodoo - Conjuration - Witchcraft - Rootwork." For more details on Myrtle Collins, and her membership in the White Brotherhood of the Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis or AMORC, see my "Notes on the Memphis Hoodoo Root Doctor Madam Myrtle Collins" page, which is part of "Hoodoo in Theory and Practice."
• Claude Alexander Conlin: Crystal Gazer and Author; Travelling Entertainer between Seattle, Washington, and Los Angeles, California, 1910s-1950s.
• Madame Corrie: Life Reader; one of the Diviners of Dayton.

D

Business card of Frederic Davies, Astrologer and Tarot Reader with offices in London, Rome, Athens, New York, Los Angeles, and Paris

• Frederick Davies: Astrologer and Tarot Reader; London, Rome, Athens, New York, Los Angeles, and Paris. He was English.

Business card of Josephine De Elgar, Palmist and Card Reader, Dayton, Ohio, 1930s

• Josephine De Elgar and the Diviners of Dayton: Card Reader and Palmist; Dayton, Ohio, 1920s - 1930s. She was European-American.
• Mrs. Donaldson: Palmist, Card Reader, and Crystal Gazer; one of the Diviners of Dayton.

E

Front of a two-sided flyer for Dr. E. D. England, collected by Harry M. Hyatt in Norfolk, Virginia in 1937; England had been an Astrologer, Reader, and Rootworker for 35 years at that point.

Back of a two-sided flyer for Dr. E. D. England, collected by Harry M. Hyatt in Norfolk, Virginia in 1937; The articles advertised here are various incenses for gambling luck, wisdom, love, and enhancement of psychic abilities.

• Dr. E. D. England, M.A.: Mystic Advisor (M.A.), Astronomer, Astrologer, Psychic Reader, and Rootworker; 847 Monticello Avenue, Norfolk, Virginia. This business card was collected in 1937 by the folklorist Rev. Harry M. Hyatt, who interviewed Dr. England as Informant #456, recorded on cylinders 432:2-445:2. England, who was African-American, said he had been born in Chicago, Illinois, and had travelled extensively. Hyatt described him as "old." England told Hyatt that he had been a professional psychic for 35 year, that is, since around 1900. For more details, see my Harry M. Hyatt's Informants page, which is part of "Hoodoo in Theory and Practice."
• Madame Evelyn: Tea Leaf Reader and Numerologist; Spanish Court Tea Room, location unknown, 1920s-1930s.

F

• Floye: Psychic Reader; one of the Diviners of Dayton.
• H. Jerome Fosselli: Scientific Palmist; San Francisco, California, 1900-1915.

G

Folded and torn front of a two-sided flyer for Madame Gaylor, Psychic Reader, Palmist, and Numerologist, Montgomery, Alabama

Folded and torn back of a two-sided flyer for Madame Gaylor, Psychic Reader, Palmist, and Numerologist, Montgomery, Alabama

• Madame Gaylor: Psychic Reader, Palmist, and Numerologist; 12 1/2 South Perry, Upstairs, Montgomery, Alabama, 1930s-1940s. By her giving out of lucky numbers, the possibility arises that Madame Gaylor worked as a policy writer, numbers runner, or bookie as well as a numerologist.

H

• Prof. Hermann: Reader; one of the Diviners of Dayton.

Business card of Mrs. Hise, Natural Clairvoyant, Kansas City, Kansas, 1880-1890; the chromolithographic image of red roses and a metallic silver anchor signifies that she was a Spiritualist who could contact the beloved dead and would also report on the safety of loved ones far away, such as sailors at sea.

• Mrs. Hise: Natural Clairvoyant; Kansas City, Kansas, 1880-1890. An ad for Mrs. Hise in the April 20th 1886 issue of the Kansas City Star Newspaper states that "Mrs. Hise is the Most Wonderful fortune teller of the age and gives the best counsel on all business and love affairs." The ad also states that, Mrs. Hise was located at 148 James St. in Kansas City, Kansas, as shown on this card.

J

• Madam Jeanette: Medium And Adviser; one of the Diviners of Dayton

K

• Margaret King: Tea Leaf Reader; Detroit, Michigan, 1920s -1930s; according to a September 24, 1930 article in the Ludington Daily News of Ludington, Michigan, Margaret King, age 31 (born circa 1899) and Mrs. Erma Libson, age 48 (born circa 1882) were arrested for telling fortunes in a tea room in Detroit. See the newspaper clipping at The Mystic Tea Room's article on Having Your Fortune Told At a Tea Room.

L

• Madam La Venus: Adviser; one of the Diviners of Dayton.
• Madam Leone: Gifted Reader And Advisor; one of the Diviners of Dayton.

Business card of Rev. Hattie V. Lewis, Spiritual Medium of Washington, D. C., collected by Rev. Harry M. Hyatt in 1939.

• Rev. Hattie V. Lewis: Spiritual Medium; Washington, D. C., 1930s. In July 1939 this African-American minister and conjure doctor was interviewed by the folklorist Rev. Harry M. Hyatt. She told him that she had been born in Washington, D.C. and had lived in New York City for a while. She worked for clients and conducted spiritual meetings in her home thrice weekly, and, as her card indicates, she was a devout Christian and a member of the Improved Benevolent and Protective Order Elks of the World, an African-American fraternal order modeled on the formerly segregationist and all-white Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. Rev. Lewis shared several Bible-based spells with Hyatt, who called her Informant #627 and recorded her on cylinders 802:5 - 803:2; a transcription of her interview can be found at entry 2743 in his 5-volume book "Hoodoo - Conjuration - Witchcraft - Rootwork." For more details on Rev. Lewis, see my Harry M. Hyatt's Informants page, which is part of "Hoodoo in Theory and Practice."

• Mrs. Erma Libson: Tea Leaf Reader; Detroit, Michigan, 1920s -1930s; according to a September 24, 1930 article in the Ludington Daily News of Ludington, Michigan, Mrs. Libson, age 48 (born circa 1882) and Margaret King, age 31 (born circa 1899) were arrested for telling fortunes in a tea room in Detroit. See the newspaper clipping at The Mystic Tea Room's article on Having Your Fortune Told At a Tea Room.

Two women were arrested for reading tea leaves in a restaurant. There were Mrs. Erma Libson, age 48 (born circa 1882) and Miss Margaret King, age 31 (born circa 1899).

Business card of Mme. Lorraine, Psychic and Crystal Gazer, USA, Location Ambiguous, 1910s - 1920s; her address, 171 W. Park Street, occurs in several cities; further research may disclose which one matches the old phone exchange Brdy (Brady? Broadway?).

• Mme Lorraine: Psychic, Crystal Gazer; USA, Location Ambiguous, 1910s - 1920s.
• Don Luis: Tea Leaf Reader and Clairvoyant; Kansas City, Missouri, 1930s.

M

• Madame Marie: Palmist; Fort Benning, Georgia, 1940s.

Business card sized newspaper advertisement for Madam Mary Martin, Palmist, Medium, and Advisor of Bowling Green, Kentucky; it ran in the June 3rd, 1937 edition of the Glasgow Republican newspaper in Glasgow, Kentucky.

• Madam Mary Martin: Palmist, Spirit Medium, Advisor; in a private home on the Nashville Pike, US 31-W, opposite Potter Orphans Home, Bowing Green, Kentucky, 1930s. Her portrait within a hand depicts her with the striped head scarf and gold hoop earrings of a Romani woman, but she may have been of another ethnicity. Like Lee Baine of North Carolina, above, she worked out of her home and advertised her services with a large hand sign, visible from the road. She also followed in the pattern of many of the liberal-minded psychic readers during the era when legally enforced segregation based on skin colour, by making a point of stating that she served "both white and colored," although in her case, probably due to the local laws in Kentucky, she had to maintain "special" -- that is, separate -- "waiting and reading rooms" for each race.

Advertising flyer of Prof. W. M. Martin, Fortune Teller, Clairvoyant, Mind Reader, and Conjure Doctor; Evansville, Indiana, circa 1915.

• Prof. W. M. Martin: Clairvoyant Mind Reader, Root Doctor; Evansville, Indiana, circa 1915. As a conjure doctor, he advertised that he could "remove spells that have been caused by any evil influence [and] cure any lingering disease [...] which has been caused by Hoodoo, Witchcraft and Conjuration" as well as "remove all bad spells that have been planted in your bed or any place that you may be." His race, whether black or white, is unknown to me, but he certainly served the African-American hoodoo community, to judge by the wording of his flyer,
• Evangeline Morgan: Advisor Supreme; one of the Diviners of Dayton.
• Muriel: Tea Leaf Reader and Author; Detroit, Michigan, 1930s. I covered what i know about Muriel and her book, "The Muriel Method of Tea-Leaf Reading" at The Mystic Tea Room site, in the "Bibliography of Books about Tasseomancy" and on the page called "Having Your Fortune Told At a Tea Room," where i theorized that she may have been a reader at Flora's Tea Room, 15 East Grand River in Detroit ("Detroit's Best Readers at Your Service") or at the Bohemian Cave Tea Room at 1234 Library Avenue.

N

• Nedra: Tea Leaf Reader at the Gypsy Tea Kettle restaurant chain; New York City, circa 1930s-1940s. A photo of Nedra reading for a client is at The Mystic Tea Room, on the page called "Viewing the Cup." She was European-American.
• Madame Neergaard (Grace Neergaard): Scientific Palmist; San Francisco, California, 1900-1915. She was European-American and had studied scientific palmistry with Saint Germain (Edgar de Valcourt-Vermont), a journalist for the Chicago Times. She came to California snf became the palmistry consultant to the San Francisco Call newspaper in the late 1890s. She had an office at 3388 21st Street near Valencia Street.

O

Business card of Bert F. Ober, Professional Hypnotist, Stahlstown, Pennsylvania, late 19th century

• Bert F. Ober: Professional Hypnotist; Stahlstown, Pennsylvania, late 19th century.
• Ohaspe: Psychic Adviser; one of the Diviners of Dayton.

Good Luck "throw-out card" of Madame Olga, Psychic Reader and wife of Mysterious Smith; Travelling Entertainer, circa 1920s-1930s, when the swastika was merely a symbol of health and happiness

• Madame Olga: Psychic Reader and wife of Mysterious Smith; Travelling Entertainer, 1920s-1930s. She was European-American.

P

Business card of Prof. Punditjee, offering a free Scientific Palm Reading with each meal at the Gypsy Tea Kettle in New York City, New York, which had three locations in New York at this time, circa 1930s

• Prof. Punditjee: Scientific Palmist and Tea Leaf Reader at the Gypsy Tea Kettle restaurant chain; New York City, 1930s-1940s.
• Paschal Beverly Randolph:Crystal Gazer, Clairvoyant, Spiritualist Medium, Rootworker, and Author; Memphis, Tennessee; San Francisco, California; and Toledo, Ohio, 1850-1875. He was African-American.

R

An early business card of Dr. E. P. Read, Herbalist, Pharmacist, Psychic Reader, Root Doctor, and Entrepreneur of the then all-black town of Lawnside, New Jersey, probably before 1900, stating his occupation as Judge of the Small Cause Court of the 2nd District of Center Township in Camden County, New Jersey; shortly thereafter he opened an herbal pharmacy, hoodoo shop, printing plant, and insurance business in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

• Dr. E. P. Read: Psychic Reader, Astrologer, Herbalist, Rootworker, and Author,; brother-in-law of Spiritual Medium Lillian A, Wilson; Lawnside, New Jersey and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1890s-1940s. He was African-American.

An oversized business card on bright pink index stock advertising the services of the crystal gazer and "Queen of Palmistry," Madam Reada.

• Madam Reada Crystal Gazer, Palmist, and Psychic; location unknown, 1910s-1940s. Her name is an obvious play on the word "reader." Her mention of the term "crossed in love" indicates that she works for African-American clients, although it does not prove that she herself was black.

Business card of Madame Robert, a travelling Psychic Reader, in Federalsburg, Maryland circa 1920s-1940s

Reverse side of the business card of Madam Robert, a travelling Psychic Reader, in Federalsburg, Maryland circa 1920s-1940s

• Madame / Madam Robert: Psychic, Palmist, Advisor; Rootworker; Federalsburg, Maryland, 1920s-1940s. Like several other readers during the era of legislated racial segregation, she made a point of advertising the fact that she read "for white and colored."

Business card of Ross, Tea Leaf and Card Reader at the Gypsy Tea Shop and Wishing Cup Tea Room, Boston, Massachusetts, 1930s

• Ross: Tea Leaf and Card Reader; Gypsy Tea Shop and Wishing Cup Tea Room, Boston, Massachusetts, 1930s.
• Sister Ruby: Psychic Reader; Pageland, South Carolina, 1990s.

S

Business card of Ann Sauer, Tea Leaf Reader at the 1933 Century of Progress (World's Fair) in Chicago; she told fortunes at the German-American Building, which was operated by an organization dedicated to fostering an alliance between America and Nazi Germany.

• Ann Sauer: Tea Leaf Reader at the 1933 Century of Progress (World's Fair) in Chicago; she told fortunes at the German-American Building, which was operated by an organization dedicated to fostering an alliance between America and Nazi Germany. She was German-American.

Business card of Madame Anna Schmidt, a reader from Central Europe who was in San Francisco, circa 1890.

• Madame Anna Schmidt: The image of the Moon and Stars implies astrological readings, and the hand holding three Aces implies paying card reading. The text of her business card reads, "Past, Present and Future. The World Renowned MADAME ANNA SCHMIDT, Clairvoyant & Fortune Teller, from Vienna, Prague and Berlin. All those who have consulted with Madame Schmidt and tested her extraordinary gift of seeing the past, and unravelling the future, have come away delighted and satisfied that she has no equal in the world. She has only lately come to this country after exhibiting her wonderful powers before most of the crowned heads of Europe. She speaks nearly all languages, and among the thousands who have consulted her in relation to business matters, love, lost or stolen property, in London, Paris, Leipsic and New York, there is not one but who concurs in the universal verdict, that she is surpassed by no living clairvoyant. Can be consulted at all reasonable hours. Ladies, One Dollar; By Mail, Two Dollars. Gentlemen, Two Dollars; By Mail, Three Dollars. Egyptian and Oriental Charms a Specialty. Call and be convinced. 320 Dupont Street. Brunt & Fisher Print, 509 Bush St., S.F."

Postcard advertisement for 1932 astrological forecasts by Prof. A. F. Seward, Astrologer, Numerologist, and Author; each year's announcement is traditionally mailed in the Autumn of the previous year, so this card is dated October 1931; artwork and lettering by Seward, who illustrated all of his own ads, flyers, books, and pamphlets.

• Prof. A. F. Seward: Astrologer, Palmist, Author, and Card Reader; Travelling Entertainer, Ohio, Illinois, New Jersey, Florida, 1900s-1960s. He was Anglo-American. Read a chronological biographical bibliography of his life and works at the Professor A. F. Seward page.
• Herbert Arthur Sloane (Kala the Cardopractor): Card Reader and Evidentiary Spirit Medium; Mansfield, Ohio; South Bend, Indiana; Toledo, Ohio, 1932-1975.
• Madame Snehega: Palmist; location unknown, 1930s.

The Third Annual Convention of the International Fortune Tellers Association, held at the Ice Skating Casino on West 52nd Street in New York City, New York. The photo, dated September 14th, 1938, is by International News Photo service and came to me from the press morgue of the San Francisco Examiner.

• Prof. Harry Sperson: Crystal Gazer and Sand Diviner, New York City, New York. With one exception, the readers in the above photo are all women, and they all dress as "Gypsies," a term then used to describe the Romani people, but which also came to be slang for any fortune teller of any ethnicity who read palms, a crystal ball, cards, or tea leaves. These women did not put on brown-face or try to impersonate people of Indian descent, nor were their clothes highly accurate as folk-garments; they were wearing the costumes of their trade -- a nice house dress, a colourful kerchief or bandanna, earrings, bracelets, and perhaps a vest. The lone man in the center of the above photo, who holds a crystal ball, is identified on the back as "Prof. Harry Sperson, Crystal Gazer and Sand Diviner" -- the latter term referring to Geomancy. He is wearing a turban, which is what about a quarter of the male readers of the era wore as a performance costume. The professional psychics in this photo probably read tea leaves and cards at the many Gypsy-themed tea rooms that were very popular in New York and along the East Coast during this era. See more at The Mystic Tea Room's article on Having Your Fortune Told At a Tea Room. In the Bradford, Pennsylvania, Era newspaper for September 28th, 1936, two years before this photo was taken, an article titled "Fortune Tellers Tell What World May Look For Next" makes mention that "Rajah Harry Sperson, New York Crystal Gazer, made a speech" at the first annual convention of the National Association of Fortune Tellers, which was held in Trenton, New Jersey.

Classified advertisement from the Victoria Times Colonist newspaper, November 13, 1939 for Madame Starr, who was a tea leaf reader and numerologist at Kelway's Black Horse Cafe in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

• Madame Starr: Tea Leaf Reader, Numerologist; Kelway's Black Horse Cafe, Victorian British Columbia, Canada.
• Madam Stonar: Psychic Reader; Faiirfield, Alabama, 1930s.

T

Business card of Madam Taylor, a travelling Psychic Reader, in Albany, Missouri, circa 1920s-1930s

• Madame Taylor: Psychic Reader; Peripatetic, but located in Albany, Missouri, in the 1920s-1930s.
• Madam Terry: Psychic Reader; one of the Diviners of Dayton.

U

Professor George Usher offered free tea cup readings at the Hotel York Coffee Shop in Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Calgary Herald newspaper ad, May 19th, 1934. Thanks to Dixie M. Ford for bringing Professor Usher to my attention.

• Professor Usher: Psychic Reader, Geomancer, and Tea Leaf Reader; Calgary, Alberta, Canada. In May, 1934, according to s series of newspaper ads in the Calgary Herald, Professor Usher offered cup divination at the York Hotel Coffee Shop at 7th Avenue and Centre Street, Calgary, Alberta, Canada (Telephone M4748). The "Great Exponent of Psychic Powers as Used in India" seems to have combined tea leaf reading with sand geomancy, for the ad copy of May 19th, 1934 explains that he offers, "Cup divinations -- not ordinary cup reading -- but the centuries-old method used by the seers of India in their divination with sand -- used by Yogis (the holy teachers) -- as the means whereby they peer through and beyond the wavering curtains of uncertainty before the door of tomorrow -- a method which has been lauded for years by Eastern travelers for its remarkable forecasts." In another Calgary Herald ad, from May 26th, we learn that Professor Usher was held over one more week at the York Coffee Shop "by Popular Demand." Going back two years, to 1932, we learn that this reader's name is George Usher, for an ad in the Calgary Herald for March 18, 1932 tells us that at the Capitol Theatre, where the first run film was "Shanghai Express" directed by Josef von Sternberg, with Marlene Dietrich, Clive Brook, Anna May Wong, Warner Oland, and Eugene Pallette, there was on offer in the Mezzanine Lounge for "Ladies Teacup Reading" by "George Usher (Late of the Hotel York Coffee Shop)." This means that Usher's "re-engagement" in 1934 referred back to his time at the Hotel York coffee Shop going back prior to March, 1932 -- and prior to assuming the performance title of "Professor."

V

• Madame Vaughn: Spiritualist; one of the Diviners of Dayton.
• Valdo and Princess Pat: Musical Clairvoyants, 1940s, New York and New Jersey.
• Iris Vorel (Margaret Bridgman)': Astrologer and Author, New York City, New York, 1920s-1940s.

W

Advertisement for Mrs. Lillian A. Wilson (Lillian Smith Wilson Sheldon)]: Spiritual Medium; sister-in-law of Dr. E. P. Read and a reader at his establishments in Lawnside, New Jersey and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1900s-1920s.

Business card for Mrs. Lillian A. Sheldon, also known as Mrs. Lillian A. Wilson and Lillian Smith Wilson Sheldon; sister-in-law of Dr. E. P. Read and a reader at his establishments in Lawnside, New Jersey and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1900s-1920s.

• Lillian A. Wilson (Lillian Smith Wilson Sheldon): Spiritual Medium; Psychic, Palm Reader. She was the sister-in-law of Dr. E. P. Read and one of the three African-American readers at his establishments in Lawnside, New Jersey and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania during the 1900s-1920s. The other two readers were Dr. Read and his wife, Mrs. Allie Smith Read. Read owned and operated his own printing plant and no double printed both the advertisement and the business card, which was run off on gloriously violet index stock.

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Classified advertisement for Zulukee the Hindoo which ran repeatedly in the Rock Island Argus newspaper in Rock Island, Illinois, during 1900 and 1901.

Oversized business card for Zulukee the Hindoo, palm reader.

Oversized business card for Zulukee the Hindoo, palm reader.

• Zulukee the Hindoo: Palmistry and Life Reading; Peripatetic. Temporarily at the Brunswick Hotel, location unknown, and also in Rock Island, Illinois, circa 1890-1910. (There were at least a dozen Brunswick hotels in the United States and Canada during this era, so finding the one she read at is not possible unless further advertisements are found.) The classified ad for Zulukee the Hindoo ran in the Rock Island Argus newspaper in Rock Island, Illinois, from 1900 through 1901. The name Zulukee is mysterious, but there is a village in Assam, India, called Niz-Zuluki, and Zulukee's photo certainly indicates that she was Indian, as does her chosen divining method of palmistry. The nature of the "true Hindoo charm" is unguessable, but it may have been an Indian kavacha protection amulet, as these were easily obtained then, being imported and sold by mail order by the L. W. DeLaurence Company of Chicago, Illinois, about 150 miles East of Rock Island by train on the Rock Island Line.

See Also

• Divination Methods
• In the Realm of the Readers
• Palmistry and Palm Readers
• Palmistry Cigarette Cards by Major Drapkin and Company
• Fortune Telling Cigarette Cards by Edwards, Ringer and Bigg
• Numerologists who are also Authors; annotated Numerology Bibliography with minimal biographical information
• Crystal Gazers who are also Authors; annotated Crystal Gazing Bibliography with minimal biographical information
• Rod and Pendulum Dowsers who are also Authors; annotated Dowsing Bibliography with minimal biographical information

catherine yronwode
curator, historian, and docent
Your Wate and Fate

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Special thanks to my dear husband and creative partner nagasiva yronwode for illustrations, scans, and clean-ups.

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