U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Pomological Watercolor Collection

The USDA Pomological Watercolor Collection is a collection of original watercolors, lithographs, and photographs documenting fruit and nut varieties developed by growers, including USDA plant explorers, around the turn of the 20th century. Technically accurate paintings were used to create lithographs illustrating USDA bulletins, yearbooks, and other series distributed to growers and gardeners across America.

Coverage: 1886 to 1942, with the majority created between 1894 and 1916.

The collection contains 7,584 watercolor paintings, lithographs and line drawings, including 3,807 images of apples. The plant specimens illustrated originated in 29 countries and 51 states and territories in the U.S.

The paintings were created by approximately twenty-one artists commissioned by USDA for this purpose. Some works are not signed.

Data and Resources

Field Value
accessLevel public
bureauCode {005:18}
catalog_@context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
catalog_conformsTo https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
catalog_describedBy https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
identifier faead6f6-6f11-4970-b60f-66e8a2039094
license https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
modified 2019-08-23
programCode {005:040}
publisher Agricultural Research Service
resource-type Dataset
source_datajson_identifier true
source_hash bc7bb7b1572038fab79eba878e9c974a5e071f27
source_schema_version 1.1
Groups
  • AmeriGEOSS
  • National Provider
  • North America
Tags
  • amerigeo
  • amerigeoss
  • apples
  • bananas
  • ckan
  • geo
  • geoss
  • illustration
  • national
  • north-america
  • pears
  • pomology
  • prints
  • strawberries
  • united-states
  • watercolor
isopen True
license_id cc-zero
license_title Creative Commons CCZero
license_url http://www.opendefinition.org/licenses/cc-zero
maintainer Fugate, Susan
maintainer_email Susan.Fugate@ars.usda.gov
metadata_created 2025-11-22T19:33:21.432458
metadata_modified 2025-11-22T19:33:21.432462
notes <p>The USDA Pomological Watercolor Collection is a collection of original watercolors, lithographs, and photographs documenting fruit and nut varieties developed by growers, including USDA plant explorers, around the turn of the 20th century. Technically accurate paintings were used to create lithographs illustrating USDA bulletins, yearbooks, and other series distributed to growers and gardeners across America.</p> <p>Coverage: 1886 to 1942, with the majority created between 1894 and 1916.</p> <p>The collection contains 7,584 watercolor paintings, lithographs and line drawings, including 3,807 images of apples. The plant specimens illustrated originated in 29 countries and 51 states and territories in the U.S.</p> <p>The paintings were created by approximately twenty-one artists commissioned by USDA for this purpose. Some works are not signed.</p>
num_resources 1
num_tags 16
title U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Pomological Watercolor Collection