Eighty-eight original Schmucker watercolor paintings were discovered in Montana and Utah in 1995-96. This collection of paintings, along with paintings by other artists, had been in storage for almost a century in the basement of an old brewery in Montana. These paintings were acquired by the DPC, c1905-06, and about half were published as postcards in 1907. Schmucker's paintings is the largest collection of original postcard art from the Golden Age in the world. Included in this collection are forty-three Schmucker images that have never been published. These new, unknown images are some of Schmucker's most beautiful designs and are an important addition to Schmucker's known work.

Schmucker was influenced by his teacher Howard Pyle, but he established his own independent style of painting. Two other artists who influenced his work were Aubrey Beardsley and Gustav Klimt . Schmucker's designs for the DPC were published near the end of the art nouveau movement, c1910. Schmucker was a rare American art nouveau painter and designer. His style is unique and reflects a transition from the early art nouveau period of Beardsley and Klimt to a more modern and realistic style suggested by Pyle.

Schmucker lived and worked in Philadelphia from the turn of the century through c1910. He established a studio in Philadelphia in 1906 at 727 Walnut Street. Samuel and Katharine Rice met when she was a student at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from 1902-04. The couple relocated to Katharine's home town of Wilmington, DE from 1910 through 1914. Although no marriage certificate has been located, it is presumed that they were married by the time they moved in with Katharine's father, Edwin L. Rice, at 307 West 12th Street. Edwin was a noted architect in Wilmington who designed many of the prominent buildings in that city during his career. Schmucker moved to New York City by 1914, near the end of the Golden Age of postcards. He is listed in the New York City directories as living at 129 West 45th Street, off Times Square, in a district heavily populated by artists. From 1915 until his death, Samuel copyrighted some 130 designs for the National Art Company, 235 West 23rd Street, New York. He also hand-painted boxes for the Mirror Candy Company, later bought by Whitman's. Schmucker also designed postcards for Tuck and Sons, London, and Whitney Publishing Company, New York.

A more detailed account of Schmucker's biography and artwork can be found in Samuel L. Schmucker: The Discovery of His Lost Art (see link below). The limited edition postcards have captions on the back of each card that discuss the paintings and Schmucker's life. Samuel Schmucker was a painter and artist of extraordinary talent, who overcame the most serious handicap for an artist, polio of the right (dominate) arm. He studied and associated with some of the best American artists of his time under Howard Pyle, including Maxfield Parrish (see note below) and Jessie Willcox Smith. His original art, which survived for almost a century in the basement of an old Montana brewery, offers uncontested evidence that Samuel Schmucker could have, and should have, taken his place among the other fine American artists of the early 20th century. Perhaps this book and postcards, which present his original art for the first time, will help resuce Samuel from obscurity.

Note: The July 2006 edition of Art + Auction reviewed the Spring 2006 sale of American Paintings in New York City (p. 72). Maxifled Parrish's 1922 painting Daybreak sold at Christie's for a record price of $7,632,000. Another Parrish, The Lantern Bearers, 1908 sold for $4,272,000. Daybreak, an oil on board, was commissioned by the House of Art, a New York publishing firm, for the express purpose of being reproduced as a color lithograph and was sold to the public by the thousands. The significance of the season's two most expensive pictures (including Norman Rockwell's 1945 Saturday Evening Post cover Homecoming Marine at $9,200,000) having been painted for mechanical reproduction is worth pondering, but at the very least, according to New York dealer Debra Force, "it puts the work of American illustrators on a whole new level."