Samuel Loren Schmucker created numerous Easter cards for different companies. Unfortunately, most of his designs are very likely lost forever. Still, we'll try to present his tremendous talent with a selection of Easter cards divided into a few groups according to the used elements. Let's start with some classic choices.

The Easter Bunny is a figure from German folklore with at least four hundred years of tradition. When postcard artists started illustrating Easter greeting cards, Easter Bunny was an obvious choice. Still, some artists (often encouraged by the publishers) preferred other themes. Finding a card with an Easter Bunny among Schmucker's designs is more a rarity than something we should take for granted.

The same is true with religious elements like crosses or church bells.

Kids

While Easter is the biggest Christian holiday, we can't deny its pagan roots. Essentially, Easter celebrates new life or, depending on the viewpoint, the return of life or, if you want, the endless life circle. What represents new life better than children, undoubtedly the most popular motif in vintage Easter cards?

Apart from children, typical symbols of life are eggs, with their shape representing the virtual circle of the Sun, the source of all energy, flowers, chicken, and, yes, bunnies, known by their ability to reproduce.

Samuel Schmucker used children for other card designs, especially for Christmas greetings. Still, his signature was actually a bit different - another pagan symbol representing youthfulness, freshness, and new life. This is, of course, a young girl.

Easter Faces, aka Flower Babes

Collectors of Schmucker's creations have an extremely high opinion of his more fantastic works. One of his specialties was the designs of flowers with human faces. Well, in most cases, we are talking about just one face - his by far the most used model, a girlfriend, and very likely (there are no documents to prove that) his wife, Katharine Rice.

All presented images are in the Public Domain. You can use them for virtually whatever you want. Please share them with everybody who enjoys beauty, and keep the memory of astonishing Samuel Schmucker's creations alive.