Although unaware of his identity, for years postcard collectors have considered Samuel L. Schmucker's artworks the crème de la crème of early American postcards. Despite the cards' quality and popularity, no one knew who had painted these exceptional images. It was only while conducting research for the book, Picture Postcards in the United States: 1893-1918, during the 1970s, that Dorothy Ryan and her co-author George Miller connected the artist to the art. By researching copyright records and noticing the hidden initials, 'SLS', in a few cards, Ryan and Miller made Samuel L. Schmucker's name famous in collecting circles.
Schmucker's name spread as postcard collecting surged in popularity,and people all over the world became fascinated with postcard art after reading Picture Postcards, the "bible" for the burgeoning hobby. Jack and Susan Davis, postcard collectors and aficionados of Yellowstone ephemera, unexpectedly found a cache of Samuel L. Schmucker's paintings in 1995. Asked to examine artworks from Yellowstone National Park's F.J.Haynes family estate - Haynes was the Park's pioneer photographer and concessionaire - the Davises recognized seventy-seven Schmucker original watercolors. A few months after their discovery of these works in Bozeman, Montana, the couple encountered eleven more Schmucker originals in Utah.

This exhibition is the first public viewing of these original images seen in context with early artworks from his student days at the Pennsylvania Academy, to his later printed postcard sets from the Detroit Publishing Company and the John Winsch Company. This presentation provides a unique opportunity to examine Samuel L. Schmucker's life in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New York, and further understand his career as both a fine and a commercial artist.
The University Gallery acknowledges with gratitude the generous support of the following lenders to the exhibition:

Jack and Susan Davis
Shirley and Dale Hendricks
Dennis and Shellie Goreham
Thomas Mulvaney
Dorothy Ryan
The Reading Public Museum, Reading, PA
The University Gallery further acknowledges the assistance of the following students in the research, preparation, and outreach programming of the exhibition:

Wendy Ashton, George Codding, Bridget Fairchild, Magdalena Jenszke, Rebecca Lamet, Katrin Nuecklich, Rebecca Reidel, Rae Russell, Sarah Selvaggio, Christina Smiraglia, and Kristen Witte
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