Phyllis Sage (active 1930s-40s) was a palm reader who specialized in reading inked palm-prints, and operated in flashy New York City nightclubs such as the Chateau Moderne and out of her suite at the George Washington hotel. As with traditional palm reading, prints such as these were to read the “lines” and “mounts” of the subject, thus revealing personality traits and predicting future events. At the conclusion of the reading, the sheet was often signed and gifted to the reader. According to a 1942 article published in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Sage believed “the creative hand is inclined to look more like a laborer’s with its square base…” and that “the best groomed hands belong to business girls and women of the theatre.”

The present collection of palm prints, read and compiled by Sage, come from a larger collection, created primarily by artists from varying schools such as Rube Goldberg, Guy Pene Du Bois, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, and Judson Smith.