I’ve been doing some newspaper research for another project—and as I was wrapping up, decided to do a quick search on just the word “Tarot.” I wasn’t surprised to find that there are tens of thousands of mentions.
But I was surprised at the by-state breakout!
California makes sense at the top of the list. But Texas?
I was also a bit surprised at the timeline of Tarot mentions:
No surprise that it peaks in the late 20th century—but that it goes all the way back to 1735.
As it turns out, the “mentions” up to around 1880 are mis-identifications, due to the difficulties of interpreting old typography. None of the instances I checked actually represented the word tarot.
I didn’t have time to do a really thorough investigation, but on a scatter-shot review, this was the earliest newspaper article about Tarot I found:
That’s an 1887 account of the history of Tarot, focusing mainly on its relation to playing cards and card games. It was published in The New York Times, but I didn’t see a byline, so I’m not sure who wrote it.
The next snapshot comes from the 1930s—a feature story that was published in many newspapers:
Among several dramatic anecdotes is the tale of a French dancer who supposedly committed suicide after receiving a series of warnings from the Tarot that she would soon become destitute.
Two decades later, this Sunday feature from the Baltimore Sun, 1952. A bit hard to see (despite my best efforts), but it’s quite elaborate:
And when we fast-forward to 1982, here’s a San Francisco Examiner story that focuses on divination:
Another two decades, and this 2003 story from Raleigh, North Carolina, focused on Wald Amberstone’s NYC Tarot School:
And coming all the way up to this year, we find a lavish spread in Canada’s National Post:
I’ll let this super-quick tour speak for itself! See you tomorrow, C
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