‘A Savant with a child’s heart’, as the poet W B Yeats’ father, John, described her, Yeats commissioned her illustrations for his 1898 'Book of Illustrated Verses'. It was through their friendship that Colman Smith became a member of the elite Victorian occult organization: The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and would, many years later, design what is still the world’s most popular Tarot deck: the Waite-Smith deck.
This was to be the beginning of many creative collaborations with English actors, writers and artists. In 1899, Pamela turned 21 and her father died in the same year. She then joined the Lyceum Theatre in London as a set designer. With no parents to guide her, she was taken under the wing of the Lyceum’s owner Henry Irving, and his leading lady Ellen Terry. It was also here that she formed a firm friendship with the theatre’s business manager (and author of Dracula) Bram Stoker. (Colman Smith would go on to illustrate Stoker’s final book: The Lair of the White Worm).