A Scholar of Hidden Signs Carl Schuster was not a painter, but an art historian and researcher who spent his life looking for the shared threads that connect human cultures. Born in Milwaukee, United States of America, in 1904, he possessed a natural curiosity for puzzles, codes, and the many languages of the world. This early fascination with ciphers would later define his approach to studying the symbols found in folk art. He studied at Harvard University, earning both his B.A. and M.A., before moving to Peking in 1931. During those years in China, he began a lifelong habit of collecting t…