A kaleidoscopic celebration of the USDA's pomological collection,
offering an engaging, biophillic meditation upon the sweetest of the
earth's produce
The United States Department of Agriculture Pomological Watercolor
Collection encompasses 7,497 botanical watercolor paintings of evolving
fruit and nut varieties, alongside specimens introduced by USDA plant
explorers from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Assembled between
1886 and 1942, the collection's remarkable, botanically accurate
watercolors were executed by some 21 professional artists (including
nine women). Authored largely before the widespread application of
photography, the watercolors were intended to aid accurate
identification and examination of fruit varietals, for the nation's
fruit growers.
Documenting the transformation of American pomology, the science of
fruit breeding and production, and the horticultural innovations
accountable for contemporary fruit cultivation and consumption, the
USDA's collection offers fascinating anthropological and horticultural
insights concerning the fruits we ecstatically devour, and why.
With an abundance of reproductions from the collection, this gorgeous
volume encompasses fruit-suffused anecdotes and observations drawn from
the fields of archaeology and anthropology, horticulture and literature,
ancient representation and contemporary visual art. It includes
contributions by authors Jacqueline Landy, John McPhee, Michael Pollan
and Marina Vitaglione.
