Pauline Schmidt

Pauline Wilhelmine Rasmussen Schmidt (1865-1944), was a professional Danish magician and photographer. She was one of very few females in her profession during her career.

Pauline Schmidt was a successful magician and a well known and appreciated artist in Sweden and Finland during the 1880s. In 1888, she married the Finnish photographer Niels Rasmussen and became his colleague in Tampere. She opened her own studio in 1914. During the 19th-century, female magicians were extremely rare and she was somewhat of an exception in her profession. As a career as a professional magician was considered shameful by the norms of the day, however, her former profession was never mentioned after she had retired.

Pauline Schmidt is portrayed in the novel Pauline Wilhelmine – trollkonstnärinna (Pauline Wilhelmine – a female magician), by Elisabeth Sandelin (2013).